Nkrabeah and Associates, solicitors for Colonel Kwadwo Damoah, former Director, Manpower/Personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces, has cautioned the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Major-General Peter Augustus Blay, against going ahead to publish in the media, the purported report of the Col. Mussah Board of Inquiry (BOI), saying it would be criminal to do so. Serving notice to the CDS in a petition dated 16th April, 2009 which was copied to the Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. J.H. Smith, the head of the law chambers, Capt. Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey (Retd), said it would be in the interest of the military not to do such a thing. He said his client would have no other option than to seek legal redress if the report of an inquiry he did not actually participate in is published. “I deeply regret to give notice that if it does appear in the press that yes, the Board sat, and submitted a report, then in the interest of the law, I will give the appropriate advice to my client,” the petition said. Effah-Dartey said he hoped the rumours making the rounds that the Military High Command had leaked the report to a particular media house were not true, and asked the CDS to use his good office to arrest the development. “Information reaching me indicates that the Board, notwithstanding the protest, proceeded to sit, made findings and published a report, which I am told has been leaked to a media house, asking them to publish it. Sir, I sincerely hope this information is unfounded,” the petition stressed. It is recalled that when Col. Damoah appeared before the BOI on Friday, 27th February, 2009, he objected to the convening authority of the BOI, saying the Chief of Staff at the time, Brigadier-General R. Winful, had no mandate to set up anything of the sort. He added that the activities of the BOI would be void and illegal. Quoting extensively from the Armed Forces Act, 1962 (Act 105), Armed Forces Regulations (Administration) Volume One, 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana and the Evidence Decree, 1975 (NRCD 323), Col. Damoah stressed that Brig-Gen Winful had no right to convene a BOI in the Ghana Armed Forces. According to him, Chapter 21 of the Armed Forces Regulations is very clear on persons and authorities that can convene a BOI, saying the current office of Chief of Staff is not covered as the rules specifically mentioned the President, Chief of Defence Staff, An Officer Commanding a Command, An Officer Commanding a Formation, or a Commanding Officer as those authorized to do so. Before then, Damoah had protested against the composition of the board, saying Lt. Col. R.S. Nyaka, one of the members, was an interested party. He was consequently replaced by Lt. Col. J. Hagan. And following the objections, the authorities were pushed to a situation where it had to wind up its activities temporarily. Since then, Damoah was never cross-examined as a witness, yet the Board reportedly submitted a report to the CDS to the effect that it had sat and thus completed its work. Daily Guide is informed that after the report was submitted, an officer at the Osu Castle secretly landed over a copy to an Accra-based print media house for publication. Damoah became a target after he had insisted on the employment a fair formula in the recruitment of personnel into the Armed Forces. A number of nocturnal meetings were held, both at the Burma Camp and other secret locations in Accra, to discuss how he could be eliminated, but all these leaked into the media. Source: Daily Guide