Ayariga schools PC Appiah Ofori on fighting corruption

Presidential Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga

Presidential Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga has directed the Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, P.C. Appiah Ofori, to proceed to petition the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice if he has any evidence of corrupt practices against any public officer.

Ayariga says even though the Office of the President is one of many avenues to lodge complaints of corruption against public officials, it is not the only place to go with a list of allegations.

“The Human Rights Commission is there, you can submit your list to them and they can initiate an investigation. You can also go to the police and you can also write to the Office of the President. And if you write to the Office of the President, you should be patient for a response. If you run out of patience, indeed if you've actually written ….the Human Rights Commission is not too far away from Parliament House, he could submit the list there and they would also look at it so the issue about fitness and unfitness (of Prof. Mills to be president) doesn't arise at all…”

The Presidential Spokesperson was reacting to claims by PC Appiah Ofori that President John Evans Atta Mills has not been faithful to the people of Ghana in his pledge to fight corruption and is therefore unfit to continue as president. Ayariga was speaking to Citi FM in Accra.

Ayariga said he was not aware of any list of corrupt practices submitted to the presidency by P.C. Appiah Ofori and even if the president had received any such complaints, he would have forwarded it to the Human Rights Commission for investigation.

“When the Mabey and Johnson issue came up, when the president himself did his investigations and got his basic information regarding the high court decision in the UK, he also submitted the matter to the Human Rights Commission. So if PC Appiah Ofori has a list, he doesn't need to give it to the president. He can submit it straight to the Human Rights Commission unless he just wants to create a scenario where we will be engaged in this type of media discussion about whether or not the president is fit or not fit but if his real objective is to fight corruption, I'm giving him free legal advice that if there's a delay in the Office of the President, he should get to the Human Rights Commission because even if the president takes the list, he is also going to submit it to the Human Rights Commission.”

Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline