The Breman Asikuma Municipal Assembly says it used public funds to purchase ritual items to pacify gods at Breman Benin before a newly constructed market complex could be operational.
According to the Municipal Chief Executive, Isaac Odum, the assembly had no choice than to heed the calls of residents since they refused to utilise the establishment for fear that any individual who used it without a ritual being performed would die.
“After the construction and handing over of the project, the people said they are not going to use the place simply because they are afraid and the assembly needs to pacify the gods which we’ve done and a prayer was said and it has now allowed them to go in there and the market is functioning now,” Mr Odum told JoyNews’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo on Tuesday.
However, in the 2015/2016 Auditor-General’s report, it indicated questionable flags over the expenditure.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee Chairman, James Klutse Avedzi, was of the view that the assembly did nothing wrong in funding the rituals since it could benefit the assembly economically.
“It is the communities that demanded from the assembly to do that, [which they did].
“But I think the assembly was looking at it from the economic point of view; ‘let’s give them this [pacification items] for them to perform the rituals then the market can be used which we can go and take our tolls for more revenue’,” he said.