Ghanaian legal luminary and former Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) boss, affiliated with the National Democratic Congress, Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, has revealed that he harbours no bitterness towards former President John Agyekum Kufour, despite what he describes as an orchestrated attempt to send him to prison in 2008.
Speaking in an interview with Serwaa Amihere, Tsatsu Tsikata stated that he does not feel the need to forgive the former president because he never held any grave grievances against him. However, he described Kufour’s actions towards him as atrocious.
“There is nothing to forgive former President Kuffour. I never had any bitterness or any feelings of grave grievance against Kuffour. He did atrocious things against me personally for whatever reason. He was determined to send me to prison and I did go in prison orchestrated by him in 2008.” He said.
Explaining why he rejected Kufour’s presidential pardon in 2008, Tsatsu Tsikata stated that the pardon was not in good faith because his sentence was orchestrated by himself.
“He tried in his last day of office to offer me a pardon, I rejected it because it was in bad faith. He orchestrated everything. The day that I was sentenced, the court has not even announced that it wss going to give a decision because the trial hasn’t ended. There was something in the supreme court which needed to come back. It was set up for me to go to jail on that day and I went to jail”
He further recounted how his imprisonment at Nsawam Prisons exposed him to the harsh realities of Ghana’s justice system. According to him, he met many prisoners who had been incarcerated for over a decade without legal representation.
“I actually thank god for that experience. Going to Nsawam Prisons took me to another faculty of law because I engaged with a lot of the prisoners and realised that there are a lot of people suffering injustices. A lot of those people didn’t have lawyers and have been in prison for 12 years” he revealed.
The full interview can be accessed via this link:Â Tsatsu Tsikata Interview.