AGENDA FOR CDS

My dear General Peter Augustine Blay, May I take this opportunity to congratulate you with retrospective effect from March 2009, albeit in a belated manner. Most of us in this community accepted your appointment in good faith not because you were the best Brigadier General, on merit, at the time but because at least you were the senior-most Brigadier General, having been promoted with Major General SA Odotei on the same date.

We had been saddened by the appointment of juniors, who by merit and standards were inferior to the likes of E Okyere, R Debrah, DK Frimpong and CS Modey, as Service Chiefs. At least in your case, the traditions of seniority in service and ranks of persons of the same rank had been respected, even if merit had been subordinated to political expediency.

Our community was quickly reminded that the P/NDC government had appropriately rewarded you for serving on one of its bodies in the Western Region in the early 1980s as the Chairman. For investigations, trials, witch hunting and revolutionary justice not based on the rule of law but justice as seen by usurpers such as the Ahwois and Tsikatas. I was reminded that Lieutenant Issa Wuni was one of the members of your committee when you were also a Captain.

Your appointment, in a way, was analogous to those of Fiifi Kweteys, Benyinwa Does, Ofosu Ampofos, Omane Boamoahs, Hannah Bisiws, Twum Boafos and Opunis. All these persons were rewarded for their senseless propaganda and the lies they told about a sitting government including the selling of Gold Reserves, ‘non-existing’ Bank Accounts with the Prudential Banks and a Cocaine induced economy. Thus, the NDC knows its own and would reward them at the appropriate time.

We, in this community, have also been told that you were one of the principal staff officers of the former Army Commander, General JH Smith. According to the source, General JH Smith was more comfortable with your appointment as you were predictably more malleable and humble than the E Okyeres, SA Odoteis, CS Modeys, MM Tahirus and Quashies who are more principled and not as “eye service” compliant as your good self.

Events in the military between 31^st March 2009 and 12^th March 2009, at the time that you had been had made the CDS to terminate the Acting Capacity of Rear Admiral AS Nuno, and beyond to date have been very unfortunate, to say the least.

Ethnocentrism and political considerations have taken the best part of the military in all its activities-promotions, appointments, postings, transfers, recruitment, enlistment, training and courses.

Several officers from the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Eastern Regions were released either prematurely or just on time while their Ewe and Northern counterparts who are by far over-aged were allowed to continue in service. Thus, while Commodore F Daley (65 years old), Brigadier General PK Opoku (63 years old) and Colonel Kwashie (64 years) are still in the service, Colonels K Damoah and Adoteye Asare in their early 50s have been pushed out of the military on purely ethnic and political grounds.

You have also presided over the appointment of “Nyebros” and NDC members only as Commanding Officers and Commanders of our Infantry Commands Battalions, Regiments, Bases, Units and Sub-Units. The likes of Akou-Adjei (VR), Dawohoso (VR), Gbetanu (VR), Lithur (VR), Parbey (VR), Mustapha (VR), Agyapong (VR), Gameli (VR), Gagakuma (VR), Ntem (VR), Dzisi, Nagai (ER Krobo-Die-hard NDC), Ayisa (ER Krobo Die hard NDC), Kponyo (VR-die-hard NDC) and MKG Ahiaglo (VR-die-hard NDC) have given juicy and strategic appointments. At the General and Service Headquarters, several “Nyebros” are occupying appointments as Director Generals and Directors while Akans from the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Eastern Regions have been marginalized and are being victimized unnecessary and unjustifiably.

Officers from the Volta Region and members of the NDC have been put in strategic positions to ensure that the NDC is able to rig the forthcoming elections. Plans were initiated as far back as 2009, when you were appointed as the CDS, to position the Nyebros and criminally minded officers with NDC persuasion to control the strategic and tactical interests of the Ghana Armed Forces. For instance, Brigadier General George Partington was appointed the Director General Joint Operations at a time that he was a “vegetable” and was in a wheel chair.

Then Colonel DK Mishio was made the Deputy Director General (JOPs) and thus was the de facto Director General. A few months later, Colonel Mishio whose best friend is one Airforce Officer by name John Teye, was promoted Brigadier General and appointed Director General while Brigadier General George Partington was a Principal Staff Officer at the National Security Secretariat. Certainly, General Partington is being rewarded for his revolutionary justice during the PNDC days.

Members of this community should not forget that he was the officer sent by an Airforce plane to Sunyani to convey Cpl Halidu Gyiwah and others, who had been arrested in the Brong Ahafo Region, to Accra. All those persons arrested were killed extra judicially around the Airforce Bases in Accra and buried in unmarked graves to date. 

It is interesting to note that General Partington handed over the command of 64 Infantry Regiment to General Mishio who also handed over the unit to Lieutenant Colonel AK Gbevlo-Lartey. Straight away, the connections and relationships are clearly established. These persons were dreaded Commanding Officers of the 64 Infantry Regiment. But they should not forget that they are mortal human beings and may not always be allowed by God to be killing or meting out pain and suffering to innocent Ghanaians on purely ethnic and political grounds. They should not forget how Lieutenant Colonel Quashie, a former Commanding Officer of the then Forces Reserve Battalion (FRB), now 64 Infantry Regiment died.

General Dan Mishio as DG (JOPs) with Colonel SK Adeti as Director Army Operations, General ‘chairman of residents association and assassin’ IB Quartey, currently the Commander Support Services Brigade and additionally Special Supreme Commander of the Special Forces for the December 2012 elections partnering the Directors General of Police Operations and Criminal Investigations Department, COPs Kudalor and Ablor respectively are ready to do as directed by Lt. Colonel Gbevlo-Lartey and General Nunoo- Mensah to bring mayhem, violence and intimidation before, during and after the 2012 general elections.

With all humility and respect to you, General PA Blay, all the evil plans of the NDC using the military to intimidate, maim, kill, harass and victimize innocent Ghanaians because they don’t support your political tradition is senseless, wicked, most stupid and are being executed in phases under your watch as the Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces. I ask only a simple question:  why not bury your political enemies so that you and your god-fathers live and rule Ghana forever?

Currently, persons from the various units in the Ghana Armed Forces have been selected based on their ethnic and political background to constitute the Special Forces and are receiving training at Asutuare, Achiase and other locations to be used for election violence and State of Emergency orchestration to enable the incompetent and irresponsible governments of Atta/Mahama and Mahama/Arthur to retain power against the wish and to the chagrin of peace-loving, peaceful, objective-minded and progressive Ghanaians. 

Gen PA Blay, you are the CDS of the Ghana Armed Forces. You have a constitutional role to perform. The 1992 Constitution of Ghana vests in you adequate and competent capacity to deal with operational and administrative command and control matters of the Ghana Armed Forces subject to only the directions of the Armed Forces Council on matters of policy. For the avoidance of any doubt, the relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution and Armed Forces Act Act 105, are as follows: Article 210 (1) of the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution states that “there shall be the Armed Forces of Ghana which shall consist of the Army, Navy and the Airforce and such other services for which provision is made by Parliament (2) No person shall raise an armed force except by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament”.

Article 213 of the Constitution provides that “The Chief of Defence Stafff of the Armed Forces shall, subject to the provisions of this article, and to the control and direction of the Armed Forces Council on matters of policy, be responsible for the administrative and the operational control and command of the Armed Forces.

Article 214 (1) states that the Armed Forces Council shall advise the President on matters of policy relating to defence and strategy including the role of the Armed Forces, military budgeting and finance, administration and the promotion of officers above the rank of Lieutenant Colonel or its equivalent.

By virtue of Article 1(2) of the 1992 Constitution, the provisions of the Armed Forces Act, Act 105 should be read in line with the 1992 Constitution. Article 1(2) states that the 1992 Constitution shall be the supreme law of Ghana and any other found to be inconsistent with any provision of the 1992 Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.

The Armed Forces of Ghana are therefore to be run in line with the 1992 Constitution, Act 105, Regulations Orders and CSIPs, of the Armed Forces. So over to you, Mr. CDS, General PA Blay.

You have a constitutional mandate as the CDS to use the personnel and resources of the Ghana Armed Forces for legitimate and lawful purposes. General PA Blay, the sovereign people of Ghana are crying and calling on you to ensure that no single Ghanaian blood is spilled by the greedy NDC politicians, evil NDC dwarfs (old and new), arrogant and disrespectful babies with protruding teeth biting harder than adults and parading as ministers of state, corrupt baby and adult ministers, parliamentarians, MCEs/DCEs, Party Officials and functionaries looting state coffers left, centre, and right.

It is the desire by these corrupt politicians from head to toe in the NDC (never witnessed in the annals of Ghana) to retain power to cover their deeds and to enjoy their booty within and outside Ghana that they are leaving no stone unturned to use all the state resources available (including the Electoral Commission) to make the NDC win the elections.

Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, the two deputy Chairmen of the EC, permanent and non permanent members of the EC working along the length and breath of the country are bent on satisfying the over-ambition of President by default John Mahama to become an elected President. Already, it is against public policy for a person to benefit from his criminal acts. Yet, President Mahama, who should have been satisfied by the fact that he was the luckiest Veep in the whole world and has become the second “Jonathan Goodluck unelected President” of Ghana, is bent on fulfilling his ambition as expressed by his late father to become the elected President of Ghana at all costs and by all means.

Already, ‘the tainted hands’ of President Mahama in the death of Professor JEA Mills disqualify him from becoming the elected President of Ghana on grounds of public policy. The Almighty God will not allow it to happen!!!

This inordinate over-ambition of John Mahama and the filthy hands of the ‘unseen rulers’ are compelling all the institutions of state, and most importantly, the Ghana Armed Forces, to rally behind the NDC to steal, cheat and rig the elections through intimidation, harassment,  victimization and perpetration of violence. But the evil that men do will surely live after them!!

Owing to one man’s insatiable and unquenchable quest for political power not to work for Ghanaians, as he is mendaciously publicizing on numerous billboards, he does not care about how many people are killed, maimed, disabled, violently injured, displaced, or made refugees in other countries. Rather hypocritically, the ‘never-to-be-trusted’ President of Ghana (courtesy the killing of Professor JEA Mills), is preaching peace while in fact and in deed he is preparing for war at all levels.

The NDC is using the military, which has the most lethal of the coercive and fire powers in the country, to prepare for a series of battles and wars in the round up to and after the elections in December 2012.

As the constitutionally mandated Ghanaian public office holder responsible for the Ghana Armed Forces, General Peter Augustine Blay is urgently being called upon by the chiefs and people, the religious leaders, opinion leaders, mothers, children, vulnerable and ordinary citizens of Ghana to prevent the execution of any diabolical, treacherous, treasonable, unlawful, illegitimate, unconstitutional and unorthodox plans means of using the Ghana Armed Forces to achieve political and parochial objectives of the NDC and President Mahama.

General Blay is to ensure that the Ghana Armed Forces remain loyal to the 1992 Constitution to serve the interest of the sovereign people of Ghana in an impartial, fair and just manner. General Blay is advised not follow the footsteps of General JH Smith, who as an Army Commander issued beautiful directives to troops to remain loyal, neutral and impartial in the elections and yet behind the scenes teamed up with the Gbevlo-Larteys, Anyidohos, NDC Ministers, Party functionaries, Professor JEA Mills and others to dabble activity in politics and the electoral process of 2000.

In spite of what General JH Smith, Anyidoho, Lieutenant Colonel Gbevlo-Lartey, Lieutenant Colonel PK Agudogo, Colonel Theo Tawiah and others did, the Lord Almighty liberated Ghanaians from the oppression and evil ways of the evil dwarfs of the NDC.

History is likely to repeat itself in the 2012 elections. God Almighty will respond to the cries of Ghanaians. Majority of Ghanaians are suffering at the hands of the incompetent NDC government. Poverty, disease, ignorance and lack of economic development are manifesting themselves in all parts of Ghana. Majority of Ghanaians cannot afford one square meal in Ghana today. Most parents cannot pay the school fees for their children in second cycle institutions as well as in tertiary institutions.

Ghanaians cannot pay the premium on their Health Insurance Policy and consequently are slowly dying because of inability to access medical care and treatment. Ghanaian traders do not have effective demand for their goods and are running at losses.

General PA Blay, the Service Chiefs, the Commanders of Bases and Commanders, Commanding Officers, Officers and men of the various unit of the Ghana Armed Forces are please requested to be patriotic, nationalistic and should think about Ghana first. Please do not allow this beautiful country of ours to be destroyed by politicians, who have acquired more than necessary and do not think about the worries of the ordinary Ghanaians.

General PA Blay, you have been on various peace support operations and know what war, civil war, civil disobedience, strife, insurrection and disturbances have done to countries such as Lebanon, Cambodia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Congo and Ivory Coast.

General Blay, do you want similar incidents to take place in Ghana? How are you going to prevent that? Your predecessors-General Akafia and JB Danquah did it in 2000 and 2008 respectively. What are you also doing to stop the senseless carnage that have been planned by Dr. Afari Gyan and his EC, Yaw Boateng Gyan and his NDC, Asiedu Nketiah and his Ivorian mercenaries, Ofosu Kwakye and his mercenaries,Gbevlo-Lartey and his numerous groups sent to South Africa, Cuba, Libya and Venezuela. God is watching all those movements. Peace shall prevail.

Yours in Service,

The One who Saved You

British worshippers Accuse Bishop David Oyedepo of Exploitation

This is a story published by UK Daily Mail this morning. They are accusing Bishop Oyedepo's Winners Chapel of exploiting their worshipers and receiving over £16 million in donations from them. See it below...

A church run by a controversial multi-millionaire African preacher has been accused of ‘cynical exploitation’ after its British branch received £16.7 million in donations from followers who were told that God would give them riches in return.

Followers are ferried in double-decker shuttle buses to the church, handed slips inviting them to make debit card payments, and are even told obeying the ministry’s teachings will make them immune from illness.

Today’s Mail on Sunday revelations about the Winners’ Chapel movement have prompted the Charity Commission to review the charitable status  of the church – one of the fastest-growing in the UK.

Winners’ Chapel is part of a worldwide empire of evangelical ministries run by Nigeria’s wealthiest preacher David Oyedepo, who has an estimated £93 million fortune, a fleet of private jets and a Rolls-Royce Phantom. 

Dubbed ‘The Pastorpreneur’, he was accused earlier this year of slapping the face of a young woman he said was a witch. The assault case was struck out but is being appealed.

Branches of the church have sprung up in major UK cities in a huge recruitment drive centred on Mr. Oyedepo’s ‘prosperity gospel’. This claims that congregants who make regular donations and pay tithes – a ten per cent levy on their income – will be rewarded financially by God. 

Followers are urged to target vulnerable people such as the lonely, the sick, the homeless and the suicidal as potential candidates for conversion. 

Last night, Labour MP Paul Flynn said Winners’ Chapel was cynically exploiting supporters. ‘They [Winners’ Chapel] are making clearly spurious claims and it seems to be a cynical exploitation of the gullible,’ he said.

Referring to the slapping incident, Mr. Flynn added: ‘What is also alarming is the reported violence and the lack of respect for the status of women. It’s taking us back to a previous age of ignorance and prejudice that we all thought the church had escaped.’

This newspaper’s investigation can further disclose:

• Congregants are handed a payment slip requesting payments using cheque, cash or debit card when they enter London’s Winners’ Chapel.

• Donations to the ministry in England almost doubled from £2.21 million to £4.37 million between 2006 and 2010.

• Mr. Oyedepo’s super-church in Nigeria received £794,000 or 73 per cent of the charitable donations paid out by the British Winners’ Chapel between 2007 and 2010. This was despite claims in Africa that he is enriching himself at the expense of his devotees.

• The registered charity has spent £6.81 million on evangelism and ‘praise, worship and fellowship’.

• The church’s ‘Joseph Squad’ preaches in British prisons and has a weekly broadcast named ‘Liberation Hour’ on satellite and cable TV here.

In the past three years, Winners’ Chapel churches have been established in Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds and Bradford, adding to those in London, Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow.

An undercover Mail on Sunday reporter attended Sunday services at Winners’ Chapel’s ‘London HQ’ in Dartford, Kent, which attracts 1,000 congregants – chiefly African and Caribbean immigrants. It is run like ‘a business conference’ by Mr. Oyedepo’s son; David Oyedepo Jnr. Packed buses deliver singing worshippers from South-East London, Essex and Kent to the huge auditorium.

The reporter saw a payment slip being given to every person entering the church encouraging them to donate money by cheque or cash or to fill in a form with their debit card details. The slip said tithes should be paid separately using a ‘Kingdom Investment Booklet’ and the reporter was informed that payments could also be made by phone. A pastor told the worshippers: ‘You shall be financially promoted after this service in Jesus’s name if you are ready to honour the Lord therefore with all your givings, your tithes, your offerings, your Kingdom investment, your sacrifices.’

Congregants were told to fill in their slips and hold them above their heads while the donations were blessed.

A jet belong to Bishop Oyedepo

The service was interspersed with testimonies. ‘I received a bill from  the bank that I didn’t understand, so I prayed,’ said one congregant. ‘A few days later, the bank wrote to apologize for their mistake – Hallelujah!’ ‘Hallelujah,’ the audience shouted back.

Congregants were told they could gain favour by persuading others to follow Mr. Oyedepo’s teachings. His son said: ‘Look around you. Someone is sick and already wishing he or she were dead, that is a fruit ripe to harvest. Someone is confounded and considering suicide as an option, that is another fruit that is ripe to harvest.

‘Someone else is lonely and wondering if there is any future for him, that is another fruit ripe to harvest. 

‘Also there are many men and women, young and old that are homeless, these are fruits ripe to harvest.’

The reporter was taken, with 20 other new recruits, to a room where preachers gave sermons claiming acceptance of the Lord would prevent them ever being ill or suffering misfortune.

The Mail on Sunday has seen video footage of Mr. Oyedepo striking a woman across the face and condemning her to hell after she said she was a ‘witch for Jesus’. He attacked her in a Winners’ Chapel super-church, believed to be in Nigeria, in front of worshippers. A separate video shows him saying: ‘I slapped a witch here last year!’

In May, he was sued for £800,000 over the alleged assault. The case was struck out – a decision which is now reported to have been appealed.

The Winners’ Chapel movement, also known as the Living Faith Church, has hundreds of churches in Nigeria and across Africa, the Middle East, the UK and the US.

Mr. Oyedepo has received fierce criticism in Africa. One Nigerian journalist accused him of ‘leading a growing list of pastorpreneurs – church founders exploiting the passion and emotion that Christianity commands to feather their nests’.

Catholic Cardinal Anthony Okogie criticized such preachers for placing materialism above Jesus’s message. He reportedly said: ‘They have been skinning the flock, taking out of the milk of the flock.’

Among Mr Oyedepo’s fleet of aircraft are said to be a Gulfstream 1 and Gulfstream 4 private jets. It is also claimed he and his wife, Faith, travel in expensive Jeeps flanked by convoys of siren-blaring vehicles. He is the senior pastor of Faith Tabernacle; a 50,000-seat auditorium in Lagos reputed to be the largest church in the world, and runs a publishing company that distributes books carrying his message across the world.
His other business interests span manufacturing, petrol stations, bakeries, water purification factories, recruitment, a university, restaurants, supermarkets and real estate. The latest addition is a commercial airline named Dominion Airlines.

A Charity Commission spokesman said: ‘The Charity Commission is currently assessing what, if any, regulatory role there is to play with regard to the complaints made against the World Mission Agency. It is important to clarify that this does not constitute an investigation at this stage.’

Winners’ Chapel administrator Tunde Disu declined to comment.

NB: I guess there is probably nothing that The Mail newspaper unearthed in the Winners’ Chapel in the UK that does not happen on a larger scale in Ghana......Of tin gods, holy dictators and anointed tyrants.

TRIBAL BALANCE IN MILITARY

The composition of the Ghana Armed Forces and whether our Governments have committed themselves to striving at a regional and ethnical balance as the Constitution of Ghana requires have been a matter of conjecture and, many a time, unnecessary argument not really based on available facts.

The trend and phenomenon has pervaded since the Free Press of the Thommy Thompsons and Eben Quarcoos, around 1992, attempted a debate that was immediately shot down by apparatchiks in the then administration. 

Thirty years down the line, the canker festers, even in a climate people particularly politicians in power consider innocuous. Incidentally, those who spearhead such divisive, subversive tendencies are the first to accuse others of tribalism and fomenting trouble in the country.

Without taking any sides, and presenting the picture as it is – unless the names and positions or ranks we have been informed of are fictitious – DAYBREAK insists that Ghana may be sitting on a time bomb.

Aside of this is the culture that hallows ethnicity and cronyism above efficiency and professionalism which has also pervade the institution since late 70s. For instance, according to career soldier and Staff Officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, Lt. Colonel SK Ofosu-Appiah in his book ALLEGIANCE VERSUS INDISCIPLINE, he states: “…in matters of promotion and appointment, much consideration has been given to ‘whom you know’ and what ethnic group one comes from. This is criminal…”

Again, a former CDS and now National Security Advisor, Brigadier Nunoo-Mensah, commenting on the cringing lack of transparency in the service, confirmed recently “that when names of competent people were mentioned in the appointment of service chiefs, the tendency is for politicians to whine that “he is not one of us,” as captured by the Daily Graphic of March 31, 2009.

As we went to press, official information we gathered revealed that, of the total number of 938 Army Officers in the service, 228 are Ewes; of the 165 Navy officers; the Ewes are 39 and the Air Force has 50 Ewe officers out of 184 men. This is in spite of the fact that no official record exist as to the Ewes outnumbering any ethnical grouping in the country.  

In the case of the Other Ranks, the Ewes have 2646 soldiers out of the 9728 men in the Army, 458 Navy men out of the total figure of 1742 and in the Air Force; the number is 543 out of 1726.

The data on the composition of the Ghana Armed Forces as at date are as follows:

Officers:

Ashanti Region has 115 for Army, 17 for Navy, 16 for Air Force, bringing the total to 148 representing 11.50%; Brong Ahafo has 27 for Army, 7 for Navy, 10 for Air Force, bringing the total to 44 and representing 3.4% and the Central Region 100 for Army, 27 for Navy, 16 for Air Force, bringing the total to 143 and representing 11.11%.

Eastern Region has 143 for Army, 29 for Navy, 33 for Air Force bringing the total to 205 representing 15.93%, with Greater Accra having 105 for the Army, 15 for Navy, 27 for Air Force, bringing the total to 147 and representing 11.42%.

The Northern Region has 62 for Army, 8 for Navy, 10 for Air Force, bringing the total to 80 representing 6.22% whilst the Upper East Region has 75 for Army, 7 for Navy, 9 for Air Force bringing the total to 91 representing 7.07%; and the Upper West Region 52 for Army, 11 for Navy, 8 for Air Force bringing the total to 71 and representing 5.52%.

Controversial Volta Region has 228 for Army, 39 for Navy, 50 for Air Force, bringing the total to 317 representing 24.63% and finally, the Western Region, which has 31 for Army, 5 for Navy, 5 for Air Force, bringing the total to 41 and representing 3.18%.

Other Ranks:

Ashanti Region has 1055 for Army, 136 for Navy, 174 for Air Force bringing the total to 1365 representing 10.34%; Brong Ahafo has 518 for Army, 75 for Navy, 70 for Air Force, bringing the total to 663 representing 5.02% and Central Region has 954 for Army, 256 for Navy, 194 for Air Force, bringing the total to 1404 and representing 10.64%.

Eastern Region has 1868 for Army, 321 for Navy, 360 for Air Force, bringing the total to 2539 representing 19.32%, whilst Greater Accra has 619 for Army, 174 for Navy and 104 for Air Force, bringing the total to 897 and representing 6.80%.

Northern Region has 582 for Army, 77 for Navy and 70 for Air Force, bringing the total to 729 representing 5.52%; Upper East Region has 795 for Army, 120 for Navy and 98 for Air Force, bringing the total to 1013 and representing 7.68%.

Upper West Region has 380 for Army, 52 for Navy and 73 for Air Force, bringing the total to 505 and representing 3.83% whilst the Volta Region has 2646 for Army, 458 for Navy, 534 for Air Force, bringing the total to 3638 and representing 27.57%.

Western Region has 311 for Army, 73 for Navy, 49 for Air Force, bringing the total to 433 and representing 3.28%. The verdict NOW is the conscience of the nation.