Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has questioned why some officials he believes were involved in the National Development Authority (NDA) contracts scandal were not prosecuted alongside the four people convicted in the case.
Kpebu said the prosecution failed to include several people who, in his view, had roles in the transactions under investigation, including officials he alleged were involved in approving the contracts.
“Look, let me tell you this particular case, there were a lot of other people who were involved, but because they appeared to be closer, that’s my thinking, they were left out,” he said in an interview.
He specifically mentioned Clara Napa, whom he identified as the head of the Special Projects Initiative at Jubilee House, as well as the Director of Budget and some officials at the Ministry of Finance.
According to Kpebu, Napa was the final person to approve the transactions, yet she was not included in the prosecution. He suggested that some people were excluded because of their alleged closeness to individuals involved in the case.
“These are some of the concerns I have raised over the period. The person who approved these gargantuan changes, she wasn’t made part of the prosecution. The same for the Director of Budget and some other officials. They were all left out,” he said.
Kpebu stressed that the conviction of former NDA Chief Executive Officer Sumaila Abdul-Rahman, his two former deputies and a private contractor did not change his broader concerns about how the case had been handled.
He said the evidence against the four accused persons was clear, but argued that the prosecution should also have examined the roles of other officials he believes were involved.
The Tamale High Court convicted the four on seven counts and imposed fines. Kpebu said he was generally satisfied with how the case had progressed but remained dissatisfied with both the sentences and the scope of the prosecution.
