Corruption has grown wings, flying under Akufo-Addo – Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has established that the Akufo-Addo-led administration has been saddled with corruption to the extent that Ghanaians are no longer surprised with newly reported corruption scandals.

According to the presidential candidate of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Akufo-Addo government is so corrupt that it is no more news when government appointees are caught in all kinds of damning acts.

Mr. Mahama noted that although his government was branded as corrupt, none of his direct appointees has been convicted or charged for corruption.

He wants Ghanaians to vote out the NPP administration and re-elect him to lead the nation for the next four years.

Speaking to BBC Pidgin, Mr. Mahama said: “No minister of mine has been convicted for corruption after the things they said. All the lies they said. Of course, some CEOs and others had issues but those are not really direct political appointments like ministers.

“But if you look at this government, for the last four years, it is the President’s political appointees, presidential staffers, this galamsey issue, presidential staffers and minister were mentioned.

“Apart from that, if you look at the PDS scandal, the president’s relatives have all been mentioned; Agyapa, very damning report from the office of special prosecutor, so, now you can tell Ghanaians are too shocked with the corruption under this government to the extent that they are now numb, nothing can shock them anymore because this government has reached the ceiling of corruption.

“So, now any corruption scandal, Ghanaians just accept it and say: ‘That is how it has been and we can’t do anything about it’, but we can do something about it.”

Mr. Mahama noted that during his term as President, he punished those found culpable in his government.

He noted: “When I was in office, I made it clear that any person indulged in corruption should be investigated and if they were culpable they should be dealt with. We sacked national service officers, 110 of them and we put 34 of them before the court.

“We canceled GYEEDA’s contracts, one of our MPs is in jail, we prosecuted him but this president sweeps under the carpet any corrupt allegation against his appointees. The special prosecutor said the President asked him to shelve his report on Agyapa because it indicted people close to him, so, as for now the corruption has grown wings, and it's flying under this regime.”