Be bold, speak against corruption in Akufo-Addo’s govt – Sammy Gyamfi charges media

Source: Daily Mail Ghana - ​The Communication Officer of the National Democratic Congress, (NDC), Mr Sammy Gyamfi has charged the media to be bold and expose public officers who are suspected or proven to be engaged in acts of corruption, and also be balanced in the manner in which they treat matters involving all parties in the country, particularly the NDC and NPP.

​He was commenting on how the media had handled the recent allegations of bribery against President Akufo-Addo. The NDC accused the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of bribery for personally taking money and T-shirts from the wife of a serving public officer, Alhaji Abass Awolu, Director of Urban Roads, whose job was purportedly under threat.

The NDC Communication Officer said the President’s alleged involvement in acts of corruption has brought shame to Ghana and Ghanaians and, “So if he is a man of conscience, he must not wait till Monday for Ghanaians to cast ballots on him during the presidential election; he must resign now!”

He said he was shocked to see a senior member of the NPP leading people to present cash and T-shirts to Nana Akufo-Addo, even if the NPP claimed that at the time he received the cash and T-shirts, he was a presidential candidate and not a President, especially when the presentation of the money and items was done by the wife of a public servant.

“We are sending a petition to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, (CHRAJ) to look into the matter. The Special Prosecutor, Mr Martin Amidu who could have investigated the affair has resigned, while the Auditor-General who could also have spoken about the issue has been hounded out of office by the President, while some investigative journalists like Manasseh Azure Awini have been threatened and another, Ahmed Suale, killed,” the Communication Officer stated.

While the NDC insists that the money was meant to influence the President in 2017, shortly after he took office as the Head of State, some defenders of the President have suggested that the money was a donation to the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections.

However, speaking at a news conference in Accra on Wednesday, December 2, 2020, Mr Sammy Gyamfi said, whether as a presidential aspirant or a sitting President, Nana Akufo-Addo, who had claimed to be incorruptible, had no reason to take money from Hajia Fawzia, the wife of a top civil servant, who had been appointed by the erstwhile Mahama administration, for which reason he (the civil servant) felt that Nana Akufo-Addo would kick him out of office, replace him with an NPP member and possibly investigate him for acts of corruption.

“He has taken $40,000 and T-shirts to keep an NDC, Mahama appointee in office, and all the rebuttals are fake,” Mr Sammy Gyamfi accused the President. He further challenged Nana Akufo-Addo to submit himself to the gods of the Nogokpo shrine in the Volta Region and deny the allegation before them, suggesting that the President, as a Christian could easily swear on the Bible and deny the allegations and nothing will happen to him but the Nogokpo gods deliver instant justice, for which reason many Ghanaians fear to appear before the shrine.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah is reported to have said that the viral video in which the President is captured receiving money, is part of a grand scheme by the National Democratic Congress to smear the image of the President with corruption allegations ahead of the 2020 election; a charge the NDC has flatly denied and rather pointed accusing fingers at the NPP for releasing the video themselves in an attempt to extinguish the effect on the President’s chances at the December 7, 2020 polls.