Iddi Muhayu-Deen asks…
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f you followed recent developments regarding Ibrahim Mahama’s predicaments with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) over his fraudulent conduct and the reaction from the NDC, you would shudder to think that this political party [NDC] ever learns any lessons from its previous mistakes. You recall how the NDC heavily defended one of their own, the infamous Alfred Agbesi Woyome at the time allegation of fraud was levied against him involving some GHc 51 million of the taxpayers’ money.
They told us that Woyome was a hardworking, successful and genuine businessman. They said the allegations levied against him were unmeritorious and that, all the people making those allegations were only jealous of Woyome’s impeccable success story in the Corporate World. But what happened eventually?
[ads1]The same NDC, shamelessly ate back their words and came to tell us that Woyome was indeed a FRAUDSTER and that, he duped the NDC government and the State of Ghana by extension with some fraudulent claims. In fact, they proceeded to court and pressed charges of criminality and fraud against the very man they defended like nobody’s business. The rest is history which will be told generations even when we are long gone. I thought this Woyomegate should be enough lessons to the NDC but hey! that was NOT meant to be.
Like the déjà vu, today, this same NDC is busily defending one of its own again in the person of Ibrahim Mahama, the brother of former President John Mahama of 44.4 onaapo fame. Just as they did in the Woyome case, they are telling us that Ibrahim Mahama is also a hardworking, successful and genuine businessman. They are telling us that the allegation of TAX EVASION and FRAUD being levied against Ibrahim Mahama is unmeritorious, baseless and vexatious.
In his case, they’ve added a new word. They say he is being witch hunted. So, I ask, if you prove to be a witch, what do you expect will happen to you? Are witches supposed to be hunted or pampered? I don’t know about you, but my grandma tells me we DON’T pamper witches but HUNT them because they are dangerous creatures. When NDC was in power, Ibrahim Mahama was a ‘King Kong’. He was incredibly UNTOUCHABLE. He assumed an omnipotent and omniscient stature. He was a mini god. He was basically a defector President of Ghana.
He could get anything he wanted and nobody; I repeat, nobody could dare him. Of course, he had the full support of his brother, President John Mahama at the time. Ibrahim Mahama was awarded every JUICY CONTRACT in this country except those he didn’t want. He was into road construction, ICT projects, energy deals, youth projects, building projects, sanitation projects, sports projects, transport business, banking services and several others. Simply put, Ibrahim Mahama was into everything that provided money.
Yet, he wouldn’t even pay his taxes as mandated by law. Meanwhile, we, the poor Ghanaians, pay our taxes including my grandma, who sells “koko and kulikuli” in Kete-Krachi to fend for the family. TAX EVASION is a CRIMINAL ACT remember? But of course, NOT when the Mahama’s are involved. ‘Who born dog?’ The GRAs, the Police, the EOCOs, the BNIs, and all the other relevant State Institutions could not implement the laws to the latter because of the direct investment of the Mahamas in the circumstances. Power indeed sweet.
The Mahamas could even issue dud cheques to our revenue authorities and still go scot free. Remember, our laws do not permit the payment of import duties with cheques, but ‘almighty’ Ibrahim Mahama could do that, even with fake cheques. He did that not once, not twice, not trice but as many as 44 times with impunity. Perhaps that explains why candidate John Mahama got approximately 44% in the last elections.
So, just as we have 1-District-1-factory, this can also be likened to 1 cheque, 1% for the NDC. “I laugh enter Bole Flagstaff House”. If the NDC had not lost the 2016 elections, Ibrahim Mahama would surely have continued importing goods and paying import duties with fake cheques; an act, that is clearly fraudulent and criminal per our laws. The gravity of Ibrahim Mahama’s criminal offense, explains why EOCO has joined the investigation in order to ensure that the ordinary Ghanaian taxpayer gets justice.
Interestingly, this is what our NDC friends say they can’t understand. They say Ibrahim Mahama is being witch hunted by the NPP government. And guess what? The most outlandish and weird justification from the NDC is that, Ibrahim Mahama is owed by the State for contracts he purportedly executed. They say, the government should therefore deduct the taxes Ibrahim Mahama owes the State from the amount he is supposedly owed by the government. Can you just imagine? If indeed the government genuinely owes Ibrahim Mahama, why didn’t they pay him in the entire 8 years they were in office? We are not kids in this country.
If I want to stretch their egregiously incompetent argument, then I will say, the NDC is by this logic, essentially telling us that all the public servants including teachers and nurses who are owed salary arrears by the government can argue that they won’t pay electricity bills or water bills or even school fees to the relevant institutions and rather suggest to government to deduct these bills from their salary arrears. That is the NDC’s logic for you. They have reduced everything in this country to comic relief.
I think His Excellency Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia should not only advise them to READ Economics but also, LOGICAL REASONING and POLITICAL COMMUNICATIONS because they are even poorer in these two disciplines. It is pretty obvious that, the Mahamas are the NDC’s main problem and until the party “gets rid of anything Mahama”, they will continue to suffer more and more legendary humiliations. Citizens are talking NOT spectators. Let those with hearing ears listen.
Assalamu alaikum
Iddi Muhayu-Deen
#ForGodAndCountry
