Professor Ken Attafuah, the Executive Director of the National Identification Authority, NIA, has disclosed a directive from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo which bars him and the NIA from recruiting any known member of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP.
According to him, President Akufo-Addo is bent on ending the practice of state institutions being staffed with party apparatchiks.
In an Angel FM interview , Professor Attafuah stressed that political neutrality is something President Akufo-Addo holds dear and is bent on instilling same in public institutions.
“The President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, he has charged me that I should make sure no party executives are hired in the process. He does not want to leave a legacy of employing his party members and packing them into a particular sector. No!”, Professor Attafuah noted during a radio interview with Angel FM.
The NIA boss continued: “No. He [Nana Akufo-Addo] wants us to build a neutral public service. Neutrality is one of the principles of the Public Service. We need political neutrality so we are doing what the law says we should do and the President supports it.”
His comments have infuriated Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong who has vowed to incite members of the NPP against him.
Kennedy Agyapong told Asempa FM that comments by Ken Attafuah could demoralize party faithfuls who sacrificed to get the party in power.
“First of all, even if what he is saying is exactly what President Akufo-Addo charged him to do in a private conversation, do you think the Professor should come publicly to say this is what the President has charged him to do?”
“I want to ask Ken Attafuah, is his position as head of the NIA “politically neutral”?
“I have the common sense to ask simple, simple questions for him [Attafuah] to look so ridiculous,” Agyapong charged.
