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Greenstreet failed anti-corruption test on Mahama Ford gift – Vitus Azeem

By MyJoyOnline
General News
JUN 30, 2016 LISTEN

A former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative has expressed his dissatisfaction with the response given by the flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party, Ivor Kobina Greenstreet on a question about the Mahama-Ford gift saga.

Vitus Azeem said the response of the CPP leader shows the tardiness with which he will address issues of corruption in the country.

“Corruption is a general problem in this country and we are interested in how every government will handle it but not the way he answered that question,” he said.

The anti-graft campaigner disclosed this on a private radio station, Citi FM while reacting to the CPP leader’s Evening Encounter presentation organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

Taking his turn at the event, Mr Greenstreet walked Ghanaians through the grand vision of his government for the country when voted into office.

Sector by sector he revealed his plans cutting from Health to Agriculture and from Education to housing.

During a brief question time, the CPP leader was asked a question on the controversial Ford Expedition vehicle gifted to President John Dramani Mahama by a Burkinabe contractor, Oumarou Djibril Kanazoe.

The revelation was made by Joynews’ Manasseh Awuni Azure who investigated the President’s relationship with the Burkinabe contractor resulting Ghana government awarding him two juicy contracts namely the controversial $650,000 Ghana Embassy wall in Burkina Faso and the Dodo-Pepeso-Nkwanta road of the Eastern Corridor Road Project funded by the European Union (EU).

Mr Greenstreet said he will not join those persons carping at the President over the findings of the investigation.

“They want me to jump on their bandwagon. I am not an agitator for other people’s political intentions,” he said.

According to him, “we’ve constantly heard the refrain on radio; people are tried on radio and are found guilty even before they have the opportunity to respond”, noting, “I refuse to be part of a group of people who seek to denigrate individuals.”

Without mincing words, he said: “I won’t tell the president he is corrupt unless I have evidence against him.”

His answer disappointed the former GII boss who disclosed the CPP leader “refused to answer the question” posed to him.

Mr Azeem believes Greenstreet did not address the question because “he has a problem with his own party.’

“They dissociated themselves from it and so he decided not to answer that question,” he said, adding, Greenstreet was unfair to Ghanaians.

He, however, said the CPP should be given the opportunity to tell Ghanaians how it is going to fight the menace of corruption in the country.

“I think they have to come out with an agenda, maybe it is in their manifesto, but they need to come out with a better agenda on how they will handle corruption if it comes up,” he said.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | Email: [email protected]

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