Saturday,
April 13, 2013
The opinion piece by Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK, entitled
“Mr. William Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo was called to the English Bar” confirms
the extent to which public-spirited people are unpacking the controversy
surrounding the professional stature of the NPP’s Akufo-Addo within the context
of Justice Kpegah’s suit against him for impersonation. (See Ghanaweb.com: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=270869)
The writer frontloaded this
conclusive statement: “I can
confirm on authority that Middle Temple in the UK has confirmed to me in an
e-mail that, Mr. William Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo was called to the English Bar
on 22 July 1971.”
He
moved on to base his affirmation on tentative responses that he had received
from a Mr. Richard Chapman and a junior staff member at Middle Temple
whose name he claimed he was advised not to disclose. And he kept that promise.
At this point, it is important to
reiterate the fundamental claim that many of us who have been keenly monitoring
the situation and investigating the issue have made. We have no qualms about
Akufo-Addo’s claim that he was called to the English Bar in July 1971 or that
he had worked with the now defunct Courdet Freres law firm in Paris thereafter
till 1975.
Again, we have no qualms about
his claim to have been enrolled in the General Legal Council (that is, called
to the Ghanaian Bar) on July 8, 1975.
The circumstances surrounding
these aspects of his professional stature are already known because they have evoked
much public interest. Questions being asked include: Is Akufo-Addo a lawyer?
Where was he trained? Why can’t he produce his testimonials (certificates) to
confirm that he attended any law school to be what he has portrayed for decades
now? Why won’t go for his “lost” certificates to be replaced by the accrediting
institutions instead of relying on NOTES that raise eyebrows?
I haven’t heard anybody say that
Akufo-Addo wasn’t called to the English Bar or the Ghanaian one. But I have
heard people question the circumstances surrounding his being called to those
bars! That is the rub!!
What Kofi Atta and all those
repeating Akufo-Addo’s being called to the English Bar are not helping us confirm
or otherwise is the missing link in Akufo-Addo’s life (between 1967 when he
left the University of Ghana with a 3rd Class in BSc. Econs and July 22, 1971,
when he emerged as being called to the English Bar). Had he filled his CV with
information about that period, none would be questioning him to this extent.
The documents in his
possession—which he filed with the Fast Track Division of the Accra High Court
as supporting affidavits to his motion—don’t close that gap. They rather have
stoked the fire.
Now that I have read those
documents—one of which has been forwarded to the Honourable Society of the
Middle Temple for verification—I wish that my questions about the missing link
would be answered once-and-for-all. What is it about that missing link in his
life that Akufo-Addo doesn't want us to know?
Folks,
our own checks long before Kofi Atta did his revealed that the Honourable
Society of the Middle Temple has A William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on its list
but not Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Preliminary
inquiries at the Middle Temple revealed the following:
“The Middle Temple does not have a member by the name of Nana Akufo
Addo. We do have a member called William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and I can
confirm that he was called to the Bar by this Inn on 22 July 1971.”
That came from a Sally
Yorke, Treasury Assistant (The Honourable Society of Middle Temple, Treasury
Office, Ashley Building, Middle Temple Lane, London. EC4Y 9BT. Tel: 020 7427
4800).
So, if anybody is rushing to confirm the
claim that Akufo-Addo was indeed called to the English Bar in July 1971, he isn’t
telling us anything new with which to tie up the loose ends. We are not trying
Akufo-Addo; that is for the court to do if his motion for the case to be struck
out is disregarded. Even then, public interest in the matter won’t just end
there. That is why it is good to keep it in focus.
We moved further to find
out whether other known Ghanaians or Africans or just any public figure might
also be on the list as being called to the English Bar with Akufo-Addo. It was
all in an effort to settle doubts.
Further inquiry yielded a list of
members of the Middle Temple preceding July 1971. Three eminent former Ghanaian lawyers
on it are: Peter Ala Adjetey, Edward Akufo-Addo, and Francis Akpaloo.
We didn’t rush to publish these
preliminary findings because they didn’t answer the fundamental questions
sustaining public interest in this matter between Justice Kpegah and
Akufo-Addo. The discrepancy in the W.A.D Akuffo-Addo and W.E.D. Akuffo-Addo that
we noticed in Justice Kpegah’s suit might have its own implications, especially
with the presence of Akufo-Addo’s father on the list.
The deeper-level issue that we couldn’t
confirm was the date of birth and other poignant personal particulars for the William
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo listed as a member of the Honourable Society of the
Middle Temple.
We have zeroed in on the date of birth
because of the discrepancy. In one instance, Akufo-Addo’s date of birth that we
stumbled upon was March 9, 1944, while in another instance, it was given as
March 29, 1944. One can never tell what is what until that aspect is unraveled.
Now that we know that he claimed to have
lost his qualifying and enrolment certificates—for which the Acting Administrative
Secretary of the general Legal Council (E. Bart-Plange Brew) would issue him a
NOTE to enroll him into the General Legal Council on Tuesday, October 16, 2007—we
need to be stringent on anything documentary.
And the NOTE he submitted to the High
Court from the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple was also dated 2007. Why
2007, particularly?
After all, the essence of Justice Kpegah’s
suit is “impersonation,” which is rooted in documentary substance. Justice
Kpegah has forced Akufo-Addo to admit that in truth and honesty (as far as
official documents and nomenclature for legal purposes are concerned) all that
represents Akufo-Addo is William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and not Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
To the simpleminded Akufo-Addo zealots,
this issue is meaningless and senseless. But to Justice Kpegah and those who
know the legal ramifications of the issue, there are questions for Akufo-Addo
to answer.
Again, unless Akufo-Addo can provide any
official document to confirm the change in name, he will have a lot to do in
persuading us that in the eyes of the law, he is what he claims to be. No one
can just decide to adopt any name and use it over the years in any official
capacity without documentary proof.
Our laws certainly have something to say
about this issue, which is what I presume Justice Kpegah is pushing Akufo-Addo
toward.
Thus, Akufo-Addo’s defence that he
preferred Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo—and his
justification of it as a commonplace in the Ghanaian context—is only music to
the ears but not rooted in law. He will have questions to answer even though we
don’t dispute his claim that people drop names and pick on others. But doing so
haphazardly and neglecting the legal ramifications is problematic, especially
in his case. That may be a loophole that Justice Kpegah seeks to exploit to
doom him.
Who knows what there is about the doings
of William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that Justice Kpegah wants to pin down on Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo? Now, then, there
is every reason to know why Akufo-Addo doesn't want this case to be heard.
Still bent on pursuing this
matter, I know how his supporters will descend on me, but I remain undaunted. I
expect them to use any means available to get at me, and I am prepared for
their tantrums and empty threats. As for the insults, my skin is too tough for
them to penetrate.
We will wait for more information
from our sources to help close this gap. Ours is not for mischief but to help
find closure to this matter. It is all in the service of the truth and dignity.
No holds barred, my good friends.
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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