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Don't Trust Mahama – PPP

By Daily Guide
PPP Don't Trust Mahama – PPP
MAR 4, 2015 LISTEN

Paa Kwesi Nduom's Progressive People's Party (PPP) doubts President John Mahama's commitment and ability to tackle the increasing spate of corruption in his government.

It believes the president had given more than enough reasons to show that he is incapable of tackling corruption head-on, thereby reducing most of the pledges to curb the incident to a mere rhetoric.

Addressing the media in Accra yesterday on what the party termed the 'true state of the nation' address, the National Chairman, Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond said, 'We must raise a question on the sincerity of the president to decisively deal with corruption.'

He noted, 'We say it's mere rhetoric because all the talks to fight corruption have only proven to be cosmetic posture, perhaps, said only to score cheap political points on the false notion that they are or were doing something about it.'

Reason
This, he said, was due to 'the apparent lack of political will on the part of the president to deal with some corrupt officials and companies on whose cases the courts have ruled in favour of the State.'

According to the PPP, 'The Supreme Court ruling that the state retrieve millions of cedis illegally (and fraudulently) paid to Ghanaian businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, is still pending execution, and; yet another case is a high court ruling the Mahama administration is yet to respect. And that is the removal of 'ex-refinery differentials' from the prices of most petroleum fuels smuggled onto new prices set by the National Petroleum Authority, while the prices were on their way to filling stations in 2010.'

Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond also talked about the infamous GYEEDA, ASONTABA, SADA  and SUBAH corruption scandals, insisting that even though 'some officials of these institutions have been indicted, the lull in the preparation-of-cases-for-court clearly shows that effectively prosecuting these alleged-culpable officials (mentioned in the many reports) seems to have stalled not because of the often cited allegation of slowness of the legal system, but because state prosecution, led by the Attorney General, is failing to act decisively and swiftly, because the individuals involved either belong to the political party of the Attorney-General or have proxy relationship with the Flagstaff House.'

The PPP National Chairman recalled, 'We wish to also remind the president that his own new National Security Advisor and the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, all have unresolved issues with corruption. The National Security Advisor was mentioned in the Mabey & Johnson scandal that went bust in the UK, and the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, when he was Deputy Attorney-General, is alleged to have overseen the payment of and benefitted from the court-declared illegal state money given to Woyome.'

Question Marks
According to Brew-Hammond, the two 'are not only walking free, but also occupying top positions in Mahama's government' wondering, 'How do we reconcile his latest posture to fight corruption to these raging and pending issues?'

He therefore stressed, 'The president is unable to deal with these issues because of his personal attachments to these gentlemen in question.'

Effect
The PPP said corruption has become so pervasive that 'we live in almost perpetual darkness because of corruption; we virtually live in abject poverty because of corruption; the public sector is virtually dead because of corruption; quality of education has hit an all-time low because of corruption; the proverbial Ghanaian value which hitherto was the cynosure of all eyes, is gone due to corruption.'

Furthermore, its National Chairman indicated, 'Corruption has resulted from waste within the public sector; corruption has spawned under-development in every part of our dear nation; corruption has led to the neglect in various sectors of the Ghanaian economy; corruption has contributed to low living standards and its attendant hardships and corruption has contributed to the now very visible class distinction in our society; corruption now constitutes the illegitimate heartbeat of the current state of the Ghanaian society.'

 
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

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