late President Evans Atta Mills
Credible information available to the Daily Statesman indicates that the authorities at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service have commenced investigations into the circumstances under which the death of former President John Evans Atta Mills occurred.
The death of the late President Mills, which paved the way for his then Vice-President John Dramani Mahama to become the President, occurred on July 24, 2012. Since then, several conspiracy theories have been bandied around, with some key functionaries of the former Mahama regime often accused by their political opponents of having acted in suspicious ways that did not help matters.
Eight years after the tragic event, the CID is said to have opened investigations into the matter. The genesis of the probe is a petition the former President caused his lawyer, Mr Tony Lithur, to send to the CID against the Bono Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party, Kwame Baffoe, aka Abronye DC, following his assassination claims against the former President.
In his response to Mr Mahama’s petition against him, Abronye DC also made a counter-petition against the former President, some in respect of the death of Professor Mills.
CID invites
The Daily Statesman is reliably informed that Mr Mahama was last week invited by the Police CID on his petition, and a statement was taken from him. He was, however, not questioned on the counter-petition against him by Abronye DC because the investigative body wants to meet the petitioner first.
The NPP’s Bono Regional Chairman has been invited by the CID for question today, May 21, 2002, but the Daily Statesman understands he will be there tomorrow, Friday May 22, 2020.
He indicated to the paper that he had just completed a tour of his region yesterday, and so would use today to organise himself and come to Accra to attend to the CID’s invitation on Friday.
Mahama’s petition
The former President has petitioned the Director-General of the CID to investigate murder allegations leveled against him by the Bono Regional Chairman of the NPP.
The petition, presented to the CID by Tony Lithur, lawyer for Mr Mahama, claims Abronye DC has accused the former president and some members of the NDC of planning to assassinate some members of the NPP and killing the late President John Evans Atta Mills.
“My instructions are that in a recording on a TV programme on Net 2 TV, Madina, Accra, which has been circulating on various social media platforms, including Facebook and Whatsapp platforms, Abronye made certain false claims alleging a plot masterminded by His Excellency John Dramani Mahama to assassinate some NPP personalities, including he, Abronye DC, himself…,” the petition said in part.
“His Excellency John Dramani Mahama has firmly instructed me to say that the allegations are, of course, false: and for the avoidance of doubt, would like to state that neither the NDC nor he has planned to hire, hired or cause to be hired, or instructed any persons or persons to murder or assassinate anybody. Abronye DC is a prominent member of the ruling NPP, and while his false, outrageous and inflammatory accusations are clearly politically motivated, they are also likely to expose my client and members of the NDC to attacks from Abronye DC’s political party sympathizers,” Mr Lithur added in his letter to the police.
Response
Abronye DC, in a response to the CID, said: “Following from the above, I wish to state categorically that, a politician of my caliber, acknowledging very well the laws of this country, I will never make any statement, allegation or utterance (s) without the necessary evidence, having at the back of my mind that, as a legal norm in Ghana and other Commonwealth countries, ‘he who alleges must prove’.”
The Bono Regional NPP Chairman says he had attached a pen drive which has saved audio recordings and WhatsApp messages of intel to substantiate the assassination plot against him.
He also called for the arrest of the former bodyguard of the late President Evans Atta Mills to aid with investigations into the latter’s death.
“Under the prevailing circumstances of the demise of the late President, it was alleged that all security and closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) were malfunctioning. It was further alleged that as at the time the former President was being rushed to the hospital, the whereabouts of his ADC, Mr Col Lante Lawson, was not known.
“From the above, I am humbly calling on the CID to arrest and investigate Mr Lante Lawson because from all angles it is clear that he failed to protest the former President,” he added.
Source: Daily Statesman
