Barton Odro deserves the sack, not re-election (Final)

When The Chronicle was told that Mr. Ebo Barton-Odro was going to hold a press conference at Cape Coast, our immediate reaction was that the Deputy Attorney-General had finally realised that his position as Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice was untenable, following his submission of “the state has no case”, in respect of the huge GH¢51 million parceled from the Office of the Attorney-General and handed to Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

We were under the impression that, at long last, the Deputy Attorney-General was going to offer his resignation. We were, however, shocked to the marrow, when we learnt that far from resigning his position and walking away from Parliament with his tail between his legs, Mr. Barton-Odro was launching his campaign to get re-elected to the august House.

To add salt to injury, the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast had the temerity to tell Ghanaians that he had been insulted and vilified by people who did not understand the law. As part of the general populace who complained about the wanton loss to the state, occasioned by state officials who deliberately contrived to hand over that quantum of money to a person who had never been contracted to do any job for the state, The Chronicle feels that the Honourable Minister has insulted the intelligence of the entire people of Ghana.

The people of this lovely country have contracted the services of the Deputy Attorney-General to offer quality legal services to the state to enhance the way public services are conducted. For these services, we, the people of Ghana, pay through our noses. A number of vital services to the people are curtailed in order to ensure that the state could afford the cost of maintaining the services of the Deputy Attorney-General.

Mr. Ebo Barto-Odro is paid from meagre state resources and made reasonably comfortable. In return of this sacrifice by the state, the legal expertise of Mr. Barton-Odro is required to keep the state from falling into legal traps that could translate into financial loss.

The experience of the state, with regards to the Woyome dole-out, was that rather than fighting in the corner of the state, Mr. Barton-Odro was providing ammunition to the opponent of the state to cause more financial damage that would result in the loss of more state resources.

The ‘state has no case’ submission, we would like to emphasise, was clearly meant to discourage state officials from attempting to recover the loot handed over to Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

For this reason, we do not believe Mr. Barton-Odro has the nation at heart, and does not deserve to return to the august House of Parliament.

The Chronicle is serving notice here that we would continue to campaign against Mr. Barton-Odro’s re-election, to serve as a deterrent to other public officers to refrain from using their considerable leverage to harm to the fortunes of the state, which funds their various life-styles. As we emphasised yesterday, Mr. Ebo Barton-Odro deserves the sack, and not re-election. We rest our case for now!

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