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Kojo Tsikata rejects honor because of
cousin
News analysis, Paul Okai
Accra, June 23, Ghanadot – The Ghana News Agency
reports today that Capt. Kojo Tsikata (Rtd), National
Security Coordinator of the Rawlings government, the
National Democratic Congress (NDC), has declared his
intention in an open statement to reject the a proffered
"National Honour Of Order of the Volta (Companion Category)"
to be conferred on him by President John Agyekum Kufuor.
The reports says "in a brief but strongly worded statement
issued in Accra on Monday, June 23, Capt. Tsikata pointed
out; “while abroad, I learnt of the bizarre proceedings in
the High Court before Mrs. Henrietta Abban on Wednesday, 18,
June which have led to the incarceration of my cousin Tsatsu."
Tsatsu Tsikata, Kojo's cousin,
was sentenced to a five year imprisonment by an Accra Fast
Track High Court on Wednesday, June 18 of this year.
Tsatsu Tsikata, the former Chief
Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC)
under the NDC government, was charged with having willfully
"caused financial loss to the State and misapplying public
property."
In the statement, the former National Security Coordinator,
Kojo Tsikata, said "“I have now learnt that my name is on a
list of persons on whom national honors are to be conferred.
I cannot fathom the mental processes that led to my name
being put on the list."
The question that arises from
many minds is whether he would have accepted this honor from
President Kufuor under any other circumstance. And also if
he understood that this could be a gesture of national
reconciliation?
The quilt or innocence of Tsatsu
Tsikata can only be established by due process. He has
had his days in court. The court may be right or wrong
but it is not up to Kojo Tsikata to decide.
The vehement refusal of the
offer also brings to mind the fate of others who suffered
worse consequences, including public executions, under the
PNDC regime, that Kojo Tsikata served.
Kojo Tsikata, to this day, has
not been able to wean himself off serious doubt about his
involvement in the killing of the four judges for which
Amatey Kwei was charged and publicly executed under the PNDC
regime.
“Let me put it beyond doubt that I will not accept any
honors from President John Agyekum Kufuor or any of his
cronies who have blatantly and cynically engaged in a
systematic manipulation of the judicial process,” GNA
reports.
Ghanadot
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