22 – 04 –
2003 - The untold story of Kwesi Pratts’s ‘betrayal’(2)
22 – 04 –
2003 - Kwesi Pratt Accepts To Debate Kweku Baako
The untold story of Kwesi
Pratts’s ‘betrayal’(2)
Accra
(Greater Accra) 22 April 2003 - The noose seems to be tightening around the
neck of Mr Kwesi Pratt, managing editor of ‘The Insight’ whose credibility as
an honest human rights activist was called into question by retired warrant
officer class I, Adjei Boadi, when he recently testified before the National
Reconciliation Commission in Accra.
In a
dramatic development last Saturday, Mr Kweku Baako, editor-in-chief of The
Crusading Guide on the Joy FM Radio “News File” programme, described Mr. Pratt’s
assertion that he was alarmed at the prospect of a British/American invasion on
“There was
no such thing. It only exists in someone’s imagination,” Kweku emphasized.
In reaction
to a statement issued by the Socialist Forum, reportedly one of Kwesi Pratt’s
Mobutu-style front political organizations, Mr Baako tore Mr Pratt’s
credibility into shreds. He threw an open challenge to Mr Pratt to meet him on
“any radio or television station for a debate on the issues raised in the
Socialist Forum’s statement.”
Pundits
waiting to see whether or not Mr Pratt will accept the challenge need not wait
long, as, according to a JOY FM news report on Sunday, this week, he has
accepted Mr Baako’s challenge.
Meanwhile, Mr
Baako categorically stated that Kwesi Pratt, two years ago, intimated that he
never went to Gondar Barracks to make any report. Instead, he rather went to
the then Embassy of the
According
to Mr Baako, there is a third version when Mr Pratt told a meeting of anti-PNDC
forces in London, in the mid-1980s that he was arrested around 37 Military
Hospital, sent to Gondar and tortured, resulting in the loss of his front
teeth.
Readers
will recall that in our 14 April edition, we carried what was a “tip of the
icwberg” of an exclusive and revealing interview with Kwasi Agbley, spokesman
for the erstwhile Movement On National Afairs, (MONAS) on the movement, its
politics, and circumstances leading to the arrest of the leadership, including
Kwaku Baako, Jnr. and the Honourable Freedie Blay, first deputy speak of
Parliament.
Agbley, in
our report, described WOI Adjei Boadi’s assertions that Kwesi Pratt was a PNDC
information as “largely a correct representation of events leading to, and
surrounding the arrest and near execution of MONAS leadership” in February
1982. Pratt’s admission to those facts for the first time in 21 years, has
since sent shivers down the spines of his close friends and the Ghanaian
public.
It will be
recalled that in a radio talk programme on Peace FM a local radio station
hosted by award winner Kwamw Sefa Kayi last Tuesday, Pratt denied denied having
been arrested on 14 occasions by the PNDC. Claiming that it was the press and
not him that made those assertions, he threw into the dustbin a long held and
widely touted myth (he never corrected) about this opposition to and arrested
by the PNDC.
The
bombshell, however, was his dramatic and subconscious confession on the
programme that he voluntarily went to Gondar Barracks to inform the four0day
old Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) of an “impending invasion by
British and American forces.
“This was
nothing less than a self-confirmation of the well-known secret that he was a
mole for Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings and his notorious council.” Confirming another
assertion of Adjei Boadi’s that he was an “advisor” to the PNDC, Pratt, who had
always claimed to be a prisoner at Gondar Barracks, said on the radio programme
that he “pleaded with the PNDC to spare the lives of National Executive Members
of MONAS because they flowers of the revolution.”
How a
prisoner and an opponent of PNDC in the heat of the revolution could wield and
come by such influence to plead and save his “colleagues” from execution speaks
volumes and raises more questions than answers about the true relationship
between Pratt and the PNDC, observers wondered.
“Only God
knows how many others he failed to save and plead for, because they were
probably reactionaries” was the opinion of one of his close associates in the
Socialist Forum, our reporter spoke to on condition of anonymity. A second
bombshell was thrown by the former national Party, Addae Amoako at the NRC’s
sitting on Tuesday 15 April when he stated that after working with other
friends to rescue him from his Cantonments residence to Korle-Bu, Pratt
returned with soldiers to the hospital in a “search and destroy” operation.
While Mr
Pratt continues to make a spirited denial of Addae Amoako’s allegation,
Chronicle can confirm that Mr. Amoako’s allegation is “largely a correct
representation of events.”
In a hand
written letter sighted by Chronicle and faxed from London by Mr Stanley
Armattoe, an executive member of MONAS and a central figure mentioned by both
Pratt and Addae Amoako, Mr Armattoe asserts that “Kwame Adjima stopped his car
immediately he saw me at Aquinas Secondary School and told me Kwesi confirmed
that I came over to inform Kweku (Baako) and others that Amoako had been shot.
He went on further to say that Kwesi Pratt said so many things to implicate us
in a plot to overthrow the government. He warned us to be careful.”
Political
observers are amazed at Mr Pratt’s continuing and sheer bravado denials in the
media. “As a public figure, it is important that he comes out with a full
disclosure and not brush these weighty matters aside. He owes it as a duty to
himself, his family, his friends, the Ghana Journalists Association, as well as
the Ghanaian and international public,” said another close journalist friend
(name withheld).
When
contacted for his comments, Mr Agbley responded that in a telephone
conversation with Pratt on Wednesday April 16, last week, Pratt pleaded for a
meeting and cease-fire and that he should not be destroyed.
Mr Agbley
would not comment on the Armattoe letter for now, but advised that we contact
Kweku Baako, who was actively involved in the Addae Amoako rescue.
Chronicle
investigations have further confirmed that Pratt has contacted some mutual
senior citizen friends of both Kweku Baako and Agbley to intervene on his
behalf.
In a Socialist
Forum statement dated 17 April, this year which was sent to the Chronicle last
week, Mr Alhassan Adam, a member of the Forum and sole signatory of the
statement, accused what he termed “the pro-NPP media and right wing element”
within the Convention People’s Party (CPP) of launching another smear campaign
against Mr Kwesi Pratt, “this time fronted by Kwasi Agbley of the CPP.”
According
to the statement, the forum firmly supports “the principled action Mr Pratt
took in 1982.” The Forum statement said, “In 1982 confronted with the illegal
overthrow of the PNP, some elements within MONAS members answered ‘yes’ to both
questions. They plotted with an imperialist power to overthrow the PNDC by
force of arms.”
It
continued, “Other MONAS members who had doubts about the justification of this
course of action went along out of a sense of loyalty to their comrades. Pratt
alone answered ‘no’ and took action to warn our military at great personal
cost. For this, Agbley and friends now accuse Pratt of double standards and
treachery.”
Meanwhile,
the authorship of the Forum’s press statement has come into question. According
to investigations this paper conducted, sections of the statement are verbatim
excerpts of an address Mr Kwesi Pratt gave at an Nkrumaist Forum in London in
the mid-80s.
Mr Kweku
Baako, on the JOY FM programme, also contended that Mr Alhassan Adam, who
signed the press statement, was just about seven years old at the time the
events contained in the statement occurred.
There are
strong suspicions that Mr Pratt, himself authored and issued the statement.
Meanwhile
Chronicle investigations continue. – The Ghanaian Chronicle
The untold story of Kwesi
Pratts’s ‘betrayal’(1)
Send your
comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra
(Greater Accra) 22 April 2003 - The Managing Editor of the Insight News Paper
Kwesi Pratt Jnr has accepted a challenge thrown by the Editor of the Crusading
Guide Kweku Baako Jnr to debate him on issue relating to a coup plot in January
1982. In a statement, Mr. Pratt said he believes the debate will help establish
the truth about the events of the alleged coup plot. "I cannot wait for
this debate or confrontation. It will be most interesting''.
''I accept
the challenge without any hesitation because I firmly believe that it will
contribute to establish the truth about the events of 1982 and the role played
by progressive individuals and organisations in them''.
Mr. Baako
dared Kwasi Pratt to debate the matter on JOY FM’s current affairs programme,
''Newsfile'' on Saturday. He was reacting to a press statement issued by the Socialist
Forum to which Mr. Pratt belongs.
The
statement had purported that Kwasi Pratt Jnr stood up against members of the
defunct Movement on National Affairs (MONAS) which allegedly plotted to
overthrow the PNDC regime with support from an imperialist power in 1982. Mr.
Baako admits that members of MONAS planned to overthrow the PNDC but he insists
that they had no external backing.
The
Socialist Forum statement sought to exonerate Mr. Pratt from allegations by two
witnesses at the National Reconciliation Commission that he was a spy for the
PNDC government and that his reports to the military led to the arrests of his
colleagues in the defunct MONAS.
Although
Mr. Pratt accepts the challenge of debate, his statement described Mr. Baako’s
outpour as unfortunate, saying that he had ''finally succumbed to the very dark
forces, hell bent on using the distortions and lies about the events of 1982 to
attack my integrity. It must be made clear to all those who are involved in
this campaign of vilification that, ultimately their own political and social
records would be fair game," Kwesi Pratt added.
Meanwhile,
the General Manager of TV3, Kofi Nyantakyi has called on Pratt and Baako to
resolve the issue amicably saying that an open confrontation will discredit
both men and subject them to public ridicule.
Mr.
Nyantakyi says if the two editors cannot agree to resolve their difference the
Ghana Journalists Association should intervene. – MyJoyOnline
Send your
comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com