A member of the National Democratic Congress, Samuel Gyamfi, says the failure of the government to so far prosecute any former government official is because it has no evidence of corruption whatsoever against anyone.
According to him, prior to the election of President Nana Akufo-Addo, the New Patriotic Party made zealous corruption allegations against government officials under the John Mahama administration.
“They called us thieves, now Ghanaians give you the opportunity to rule only for you to tell us you have used eleven months to investigate. What is happening now shows they didn’t have any evidence,” he said on the newspaper segment of TV3’s New Day magazine show Tuesday.
His comment comes on the back of a statement made by the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, on Monday to the effect that the Akufo-Addo government is not in a hurry to prosecute corrupt officials.
Mr Osafo Maafo said at the launch of the National Anti-corruption and Transparency Week that “we are certainly going to make people who have wronged this country through corruption suffer for their deeds, but we don’t want to do this in a hurry.
We must do a thorough investigation. We should not do things in such a way to seem as if we are after our political opponents”. Sammy Gyamfi But Mr. Gyamfi said was surprised in spite of the allegations made against former government officials, the government has failed within its 11 months to take anyone to court, saying “they have failed woefully because as we speak now, they have not been able to take any one to court.”
He said the “hypocrisy and double standard being demonstrated by the government is worrying”. He argued that if the government has any basis of making those allegations, it would not have spent 11 months conducting investigations, stating “They had no basis”.
Mr. Gyamfi admitted that corruption has no political colour hence the need for political leadership punishes perpetrators. “What is bad for the NDC is also bad for the NPP so we would want to see the level of commitment the NDC used to prosecute its member from this government but we are not seeing that in this government” he said.
The Deputy Chief Executive officer of the Ghana Export Promotions Authority, Eric Amoako Twum, who was also on the show said prosecution could be one of the measures to curb corruption in the country. “Prosecution will be some of restrain is exercise and individuals who would be found to face the full rigorous of the law”, he explained.
In his estimation, prosecution would serve as a deterrent to others because the levels of corruption in the last few years have increased, warning that “if we don’t stem corruption, we will find ourselves in jeopardy as a nation”. Mr. Amo.
Amoaako Twum said said whenever corruption is mentioned, the focus is shifted on the politicians but said there are some people in the public sector who are also indulging in corruption.
They say we are thieves yet they are unable to prosecute us – NDC Communicator
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