Osafo Maafo Assures Corrupt Persons Of Past Gov't Will Suffer For Their Deeds

The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, has reiterated that persons found to have engaged in acts of corruption will soon be prosecuted.

He said it has taken long for investigations to be conducted because the Akufo-Addo-led administration does not want to jump into prosecuting people when facts and evidence to back what they are alleged to have done have not been established.

Speaking at the launch of the Anti Corruption and Transparency Week in Accra Mr. Maafo said “I have a message from the president … he told me that ‘when you go emphasise the point that we are certainly going to make people who have wronged this nation through corruption suffer for their deeds’.

“But we don’t want to do this in a hurry, we must do thorough investigation… we must do it in such a way that people who have wronged the system are identified through thorough investigation and they will answer for their crimes,” he added.

In the absence of proper investigations, prosecuting anyone would be seen as a witch hunt, especially of the current administration’s political opponents.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been criticised by a section of the public, especially supporters of the New Patriotic Party for not taking action against people in the previous government they perceived as corrupt.

They say although the president promised during the 2016 electioneering campaign to deal with such people, nothing concrete has been done aside from the passing into law of the Special Prosecutors Bill.

Mr. Maafo acknowledged their disappointment but said not much can be done if there is no evidence against such people.

“People are impatient with Akufo Addo’s government because they think that we spoke a lot about corruption in the past, but till date, nothing is happening to those who are supposed to have wronged the system.

“We have the laws of this land not to punish anybody [only] because he or she is an opponent, but because they have wronged the system and they have been corrupt in the system,” he added.

He assured, however, that “Investigations are still going on and very soon the results will be out for every Ghanaian to hear and to see.”

To mark the 2017 UN World Anti-Corruption Day, stakeholders working towards anti-corruption in Ghana are collaborating to implement the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Week from December 04 to 07 2017.

The objectives for this year’s celebration to be held under the theme ‘NACAP: Strengthening Public, Private and Civil Society Partnership in the fight against corruption’, seeks to discuss the implementation of the 2016 NACAP report.

It also hopes to, among other things, raise awareness of the NACAP and mobilize resources and effort for its implementation and bring stakeholders and partners together to plan and fight corruption.