Mrs. Georgina Mensah-Datsa, a weekend court Judge, on Saturday ordered the arrest of the General Secretaries of the two leading political parties, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, alias General Mosquito of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), and Nana Ohene Ntow of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). This was after the two had failed to appear before her to answer charges in connection with their failure to pay the Social Security contributions of workers of their respective parties. The accused persons were neither represented by counsel nor wrote to tell the court the reason behind their absence, hence the bench warrant. Both accused persons have been charged with two counts of failure to pay the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions of their workers and failure to pay the penalties accrued as a result of their inability to pay the contributions. The NDC owes SSNIT GH¢9,316 while the NPP owes GH¢5,965.89. The SSNIT prosecuting officer, Collins Datsa, told the court that Johnson Asiedu Nketia is the General Secretary of the NDC, which is registered under the SSNIT scheme with registration number 302J187. He said in April this year, officers of SSNIT went to the party’s headquarters on their routine checks and an inspection conducted into the salary books revealed that the organisation was in arrears of SSNIT contributions between September 2007 and April 2008. The officer indicated that the actual amount was GH¢8,023.96 with GH¢1,11.92 being three percent penalty for the arrears, so a demand letter was written to the party on June 20, 2008 notifying it to pay the amount or face a court action but General Mosquito failed to respond. General Mosquito, he said, was subsequently put before court. On Nana Ohene Ntow, the prosecuting officer stated that the NPP, which is another leading political party is registered with the complainant as required by law with registration number 302J1106. The officer said an inspection team from SSNIT went to the office of the NPP to check the salary book of the employees and it was discovered that the party owed an amount of GH¢4,485.87 with three percent penalty charges. According to him, the amount owed was for the period of December 2006 to April 2008. A demand letter, he said, was written on June 20, 2008 to the accused person to pay the amount or face a court action but he had since not made any attempt to pay the said amount, hence the court action. Source: Daily Guide