General Secretary of the NDC, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, has cautioned the Attorney General against yielding to pressure to hurriedly prosecute persons found culpable in the government’s Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) initiative.
He believes the government should take lessons from excesses of the 1979 corruption fight of the PNDC that has caused long-standing disaffection for the party in some quarters.
The opinion of the General Secretary is in response to the Attorney General, Dr. Dominic Ayine’s confession of pressure.
Mr. Kwetey, speaking at the 5th Annual Conference of the NDC Lawyers Association, noted that yielding to the universal cry for blood under the PNDC resulted in some excesses.
“The ORAL, back in 1979, was called ‘Let the Blood Flow’ is that same passionate quest for the blood to flow now. Now, it does not mean killing or staking people by the firing squad but making sure people are punished,” he said.
The NDC General Secretary continued, “when there was a cry for the blood to flow in 1979, part of the reason why our party has had difficulty in many part of Ghana including the Ashanti Region was because the leader of that uprising tried very hard to ensure that things were done patiently but there was so much universal cry for blood that they literally let things go.”
According to him, many hard enemies of the political party were part of persons calling for accountability during the time.
He fears the political gains of the party may be eroded if they chart the same path with ORAL.
“I am grateful that on December 7 we were able to win such a massive victory at the Presidential and actually did what Kwame Nkrumah dreamt was possible, winning a minimum two-thirds in parliament. We accomplished that despite having to go through decades of being blamed for killing people who were innocent,” he added.
He further charged, “if we are talking of reset, it simply means this time around when the opportunity comes let’s make sure we do it and do it well. No more going for blood for the sake of blood but going for blood when truly blood needs to flow. It can no more be what happened in 1979.”
Fifi Kwetey says proper due diligence must be done in prosecuting persons found to have breached the law.
The NDC lawyers were further admonished to play a role in serving justice in society.