NDC MP to face OSP over corruption allegations

The Jaman South constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is considering hauling Williams Okofo-Dateh, the NDC MP for the area, before the Office of the Special Prosecutor and other investigative bodies for his alleged involvement in “financial malfeasance and corruption” over the last two years in office.

The MP, according to the NPP constituency executives in the area, cannot boast of any completed project since assuming office. They have accused him of rather “milking” the very people he is supposed to serve.

Addressing a news conference at Drobo, capital of Jaman South, the constituency communications director of the NPP, Antwi Haygan, enumerated a number of instances where the first-time MP had allegedly engaged in some suspicious and dubious deals to enrich himself and his cronies.

For instance, Mr. Antwi Hagan alleged that the MP took an amount of GHC 60,000.00 from his share of the Social Intervention Fund to organize a football gala competition.

The winner, the second-placed and the third-placed teams were expected to have received GHC 10,000.00, GHC 7,000.00 and 3,000.00 respectively, but, according to the NPP constituency communications director, the competition ended abruptly so there were no winners at the end of the day.

Alleged corrupt dealings
“Indeed, one would have expected that if the competition didn't end as expected, the GHC20, 000.00 award prize should have been paid back to where the money was taken from for an equally another project to benefit the people, but as we speak, for almost two years now the money is nowhere to be found, all as a calculated vehicle to loot from the people,” he said.

The MP is also accused of diverting over GHC 70,000.00 cash from his share of the Common Fund to purchase food items for the vulnerable in society during the 2021 Christmas, but allegedly ended up sharing the money to NDC branch and constituency executives.

“Our checks from the association of persons living with disabilities indicate that they did not receive any such items. If the persons living with disabilities are not vulnerable, we don't know who are. Investigations conducted by our research team indicates that those items were diverted to party executives as Christmas gift instead of the vulnerable in society. Can you imagine?” Mr. Antwi Hagan asked.

“The latest is the amount of about GHC 39,000.00 that he has collected from the GETFund meant for the purchase of about 300 bags of cement and four trips of sand to some three schools, namely Miremano Islamic Primary, Ampenkro Asratoa M/A JHS and Adamsu R/C JHS, but has still not supplied the items, despite inflating the prices of the items by about 15%”, he further alleged.

Create, loot and share
He added: “There is evidence in the form of invoices, receipts to show that the monies are duly paid to Hon. Okofo-Dateh, but because of the ‘create loot and share’ attitude of Hon. Okofo-Dateh, he has deliberately refused/abandoned the aforementioned projects.”

The Jaman South constituency secretary of the NPP, Samuel Obeng Takyi, and Tachie Hayford, the deputy constituency organiser, also corroborated the allegations levelled against the MP, and called on the authorities concerned to bring him to book to save the people from any further “create, loot and share."

For his part, the Jaman South Municipal Chief Executive said he had documents to buttress all the allegations levelled against the MP.

When contacted, Mr. Stephen Afful, the Personal Assistant to the MP, dismissed all the allegations, saying they lacked any merit and were part of a deliberate attempt to tarnish the hard-won reputation of the legislator

He said the MP would, at the appropriate time, give a befitting response to the allegations.