Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the governing National Democratic Congress’ General Secretary, has accused Mr Akufo-Addo’s running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, of continuously making a lot of false and unsubstantiated allegations against the government.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, a week ago, called for Finance Minister Seth Terkper’s resignation for depositing $250 million of the $1bn Eurobond cash meant for the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), into a UBA account, a move he said was at odds with the country’s financial laws. But Mr Terkper, reacted to Dr Bawumia’s allegations by defending his actions, insisting he would not leave office.
“Bawumia has been stripped. Instead of Bawumia coming out to apologise for what he said, he’s going about adding to the lies. So, if, with this attitude, you ascend the presidency, it will be bad news for the country,” General Mosquito asserted.
Mr Asiedu Nketia explained that the Minister of Finance took out the money meant for GIIF to buy bonds as the Fund was not operational. He said the government saw it financially prudent to invest it in bonds to earn some interest.
“GIIF has not begun operations and the money has been sitting there for two years, accruing no interest. Then they take it out to go invest it with another bank, and you come and say that the NDC has stashed the money somewhere to use for its campaign. There has been the explanation that there has not been any storing of money for campaign. Instead of saying sorry for that untruth, you are going about quoting banking laws. Is it true that we have stashed some money somewhere for campaign? If it is not so, then come out and apologise. But he is going about adding to the lies. If he lies and is exposed, then he jumps on to another lie,” the former Wenchi West MP lamented.
He said Dr Bawumia should point his accusing fingers rather in the direction of his own party and find answers to why Mr Akufo-Addo had, in connivance with some NPP members, diverted party funds into a secret Ecobank account for his use.
He said the posture of Dr Bawumia was part of a grand plan by the leading opposition party, led by Mr Akufo-Addo, to prosecute a campaign of lies ahead of the November 7 polls.
Mr Asiedu Nketia also warned Dr Bawumia’s boss Nana Akufo-Addo to desist from campaigning on falsehood if he had ambitions of winning any election in the country.
He said the NPP was pushing an agenda of lies actuated by its flagbearer, using the party’s media outlets, mainly allied radio stations and newspapers.
“He thinks lies can win elections,” General Mosquito said in reference to Mr Akufo-Addo, adding: “But let me tell the NPP that untruths do not win elections anymore in this country.”
He touched on corruption, which he said was one subject Mr Akufo-Addo and his party had tried to ride on to propagate untruths about the NDC government. He said Mr Akufo-Addo and the NPP were desperately creating the perception that corruption had worsened under the current administration, though the facts available revealed otherwise.
He told host C.J. Forson: “This issue of corruption he’s harped on, he’s been shown records by those who assess corruption in this country. The figures show that ever since Ghana ranked 54th globally on the corruption table, something which happened under the rule of Jerry Rawlings, no Ghanaian government had been able to perform better. I have not heard Nana Akufo-Addo’s comments on this grading, because if you compare it to an assessment somewhere around 2003, when the NPP was in power, from our 54th position under [President] Rawlings, we slumped to 73rd. But in the latest rankings for 2015, Ghana has moved back up to 56th and is one of the countries tackling corruption. So, throughout the eight years of President Kufuor, they came nowhere near the 50s; Ghana has moved up to 56 under President Mahama.”
Source: classfmonline.com
