General News of Thursday, 27 January 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-01-27Mahama prosecuted his appointees for corruption, Akufo-Addo hasn’t done same – Murtala
Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Murtala Mohammed
Ghana placed 83 out of 180 countries on corruption perception rankings
NDC MP calls out Akufo-Addo for failing in corruption fight
Most officials in Akufo-Addo government accused of corruption exonerated, says NPP MP
Opposition Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, has stated that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has failed to live
Read full articleup to the standard of his predecessor in terms of fighting corruption, especially within his government.
According to the National Democratic Congress MP, the government of President Akufo-Addo has failed in prosecuting any of the NDC government officials which he (President Akufo-Addo) and the New Patriotic Party accused of being corrupt while in opposition.
“In 2016, the NPP made their campaign at the back of corruption. Tell me one single minister and agency that they didn’t accuse of engaging in corruption. Every single minister was accused of being corrupt. That explained why we (NDC) had to move from 47 percent to 43 percent (on the CPI) in 2016. When they came to power, they held a press conference and accused Dr Opuni. The presser was addressed by the current Agric Minister. Dr Opuni was accused of chopping $400million.
“In court, they didn’t see the need to talk about $400million. You had Ursula Owusu and co who came into Parliament with placards stating thieves. All the allegations they made against President Mahama and his appointees, they did not have evidence. They accused Mahama of building hotels in Dubai and the Corruption Index is anchored on perception,” he stated during a discussion on JoyNews’ AM show.
He added that the current president has failed to prosecute his appointees accused of corruption and corruption-related offences despite clear examples set by his predecessor, former President John Dramani Mahama.
“President Mahama had the courage to prosecute his appointees when they did wrong. Corruption is based on perception. You need to investigate and possibly prosecute to establish whether that perception of corruption is real or not. You don’t have the courage to do that,” he said.
His submission on the show however was dismissed by the MP for Anyaa-Sowutuom. Dr Adomako Kissi who maintained that members of the current government who have been accused of corruption have been investigated and duly exonerated.
“The President has been clear that he has subjected all of these accusations to the necessary reviews and so far, a lot of them have been exonerated. Pius Hadzide has been exonerated and I’m sure the documents are there.”
“As for sports tournaments, it has been the norm but it is not right. We never know specifically the amount. The how much and how it was spent, we usually don’t have such information,” he added.
Their submissions were made during a discussion on the recent Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) rankings released by Transparency International (TI) in which Ghana was ranked 73 out of 180 countries in the 2021 edition.
