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When the Minister of Agriculture was asked about this, he shamelessly told the nation that these tonnes of fertilizer were stolen and smuggled by Camels and donkeys to Burkinafaso, hence government’s inability to arrest the perpetrators of this broad daylight thievery.
Only in Ghana, can such cock and bull stories be entertained for a minute by public officials.
However, let this message get to the Agric Minister and others who are milking the nation through shady deals under the Planting for Food and Jobs Program, that we are watching with eagle eyes, and we shall hold them to account one by one.
Friends from media, these are just ten (10) classic cases of corruption and stealing that we have perpetrated against the Ghanaian people by President Akufo-Addo and Dr.
Time constraints will not allow me to talk about the Australia Visa Fraud Scandal, the National Youth Authority street light scandal, the missing tricycles scandal, the Premix fuel diversion scandal, the National Lotteries Authority scandal, the Frontiers Health Services Scandal and other numerous corruption scandals that the “Mother Serpernt of Corruption” President Akufo-Addo and his jocular Vice President, Dr.
Bawumia have supervised in the last five (5) years.
We will leave that for another day.
What is clear from all these cases of corruption and stealing which have have cemented President Akufo-Addo and Dr.
Bawumia’s reputation as the most corrupt President and Vice President in Ghana’s history is that, President Mahama was absolutely right when he said that this NPP government is corrupt and that they must be kicked out in 2024 if we have any intention of holding them accountable for their rot.
Never in the history of Ghana have we had such sophisticated thieves at the Presidency and in government.
No wonder the Presidency has today become the breeding ground for criminals under their watch.
What is instructive in all this is the fact that none of the government officials and NPP functionaries responsible for all these cases of corruption which have occasioned huge financial losses to the state have been held responsible for any of these corrupt acts.
Instead of Prosecuting them and ensuring that the monies involved are refunded to the State, President Akufo-Addo has cleared, shielded and even defended many of the culprits of these criminal acts including himself.
This is what has made corruption a free-for-all pageant show in the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government and has emboldened many more appointees and officials of government to engage in more acts of corruption and plain stealing with brazen impunity.
Coupled with this, is the extreme levels of intolerance and heavy-handedness towards independent anti-corruption institutions and officeholders and Civil Society activists who have dared to hold the feet of this government to the fire of accountability.
President Akufo-Addo removed the Auditor-General, Mr Yao Domelevo from office in a clear retaliation for surcharging his Senior Minister for his role in the $1 million Kroll scandal.
His own acclaimed Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, cited direct interference to extricate his cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, during the “Agyapa” corruption risk assessment, as the reason for his resignation.
The President is also on record to have shown open hostility and hurled abuse at prominent Civil Society Leaders for criticizing his handling of corruption cases.
Describing some of them variously as “thoughtless and loose talking” and “Politicians in CSO clothing”.
These constitute unprecedented attacks on accountability institutions and have contributed to the total collapse of the wobbly fight against corruption under the watch of President Akufo-Addo.
What is most despicable is how officials of the Akufo-Adddo/Bawumia government are busy profiting from the COVID-19 pandemic which has and continues to claim many precious lives.
State funds allocated for the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic are being misappropriated by greedy and shameless officials of this government through many shady deals.
You are all aware of how recently the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu and the minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta violated the Public Procurement Act and the Public Financial Management Act in the procurement of 3.4 million doses of overpriced Sputnik V Vaccines.
Under this corrupt deal, government without Parliamentary approval contracted to pay and actually paid $19 dollars per dose of Sputnik V Vaccine to Sheik Dalmook of Dubai when they knew that the approved international market price of the vaccine in question is less than US$10 per dose.
But for the vigilance and patriotism of the NDC Minority in Parliament and the media, Ghana would have lost over $20 million dollars through this corrupt deal alone.
In spite of several calls by the President to sack the Health Minister and Finance Minister who were implicated in this unlawful and corrupt deal, both of them continue to remain at the post.
Only weeks ago, Ghanaians witnessed President Akufo-Addo make a light joke of this serious scandal following a clamour for the dismissal and prosecution of the Health and Finance Ministers for their roles in this affair.
Distinguished friends from the media, the latest of these COVID-related thieveries are the hyper-inflated expenditures captured at appendix 4B and 4E of the 2021 Mid-year budget review, where the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government claims to have spent a whopping $100 million dollars equivalent to ¢600 million (i.e 6 trillion old cedis) on the procurement of face masks, hand sanitisers and Veronica buckets for Secondary school children in 2021 alone and another $75 million equivalent to ¢401 million on the procurement of the same items for the Electoral Commission and the National Identification Authority for the registration exercises they conducted in the year 2020.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, what in the world can justify these clearly hyper-inflated and outrageous COVID-related expenditures.
Just ask yourself how many secondary schools we have in this country?
How many Veronica buckets were procured and distributed to each of them by government?
How many secondary school children do we have in Ghana?
How many face masks and hand sanitisers were distributed to them?
As a patriotic Ghanaian, ask yourself whether even if these items (face masks, hand sanitisers, Veronica buckets etc.)
were made of gold and diamonds, these outrageous and hyper-inflated expenditures are justifiable.
We in the NDC are deeply worried about how monies that should have been used to provide roads, hospitals, schools, potable water, jobs and for other productive ventures that can benefit the good people of this country are being wasted on corruption and profligacy by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government.
We are deeply concerned because we care about our dear nation.
Even though this government has borrowed more money than any government in Ghana’s history, thereby increasing our public debt from GHc120 billion in 2016 to a whopping GHc336 billion, they have very little to show relative to developmental projects, be it in the education, health and all other sectors of the economy.
This is because they have wasted most of the unprecedented revenues that have accrued to them in the last five (5) years on corruption, profligacy and consumption.
They have wasted all those monies on “chop chop”.
Ladies and gentlemen, how long can we continue like this as a country?
I am sure you would agree with me that the dizzying levels of corruption, naked thievery and insensitivity of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government which is depriving Ghanaians of development and comfort they deserve must come to an end.
We the good people of this country who still have our conscience and integrity intact, have a duty to unborn generations to rescue our beloved country from the clutches of this incompetent, dishonest, nepotistic and corrupt Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government and restore her back to the path of development, accountability, inclusivity and true progress.
This is why President Mahama is calling on all of us to kick these greedy thieves out of office in 2024 to afford the next NDC administration the opportunity to hold them accountable for their many corrupt acts.
We cannot afford to give them four more years to cover up and enjoy their loot while the majority of Ghanaians continue to wallow in squalor and abject poverty.
Regime change, is our only hope of holding President Akufo-Addo, Dr Bawumia and their appointees accountable for their stewardship.
It is the only way we can retrieve the huge sums of monies they have stolen from the state and punish them in accordance with the law.
Our friends in the NPP know that most of them cannot pass the accountability test when they leave office.
This is why they are panicking and desperately jumping over themselves to “break the 8” at all cost.
And, this is why they are desperately trying to run down the hard-won reputation and integrity of President John Dramani Mahama whose public image stands tall and continues to shine like a towering lighthouse.
As for the NPP and their corrupt surrogates, their cup is full to the brim and running over.
Time has exposed their chicanery and criminal acts.
Ghanaians are well awake this time around and have come to appreciate them for who they truly are; an incompetent, dishonest and corrupt bunch who only came to power to enrich themselves at the expense of the State.
They will not be third time lucky with lies and no amount of subterfuge and comical attacks they heap on the person of H.E John Dramani Mahama can hoodwink Ghanaians and keep them in power behind 2024.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we will not bore you with any response to the false and baseless corruption allegations leveled against the NDC and President Mahama by these NPP thieves who are busy looking for corruption class mates.
All the stale and contrived allegations they rehashed at their last press conference addressed by their General Secretary have been discredited over and over again.
Like the Akans say, “Yate abre”, to wit, we are tired of listening to these same old lies.
Five years (5) after leaving office, President Mahama remains squeaky clean with unblemished integrity.
His impeccable record is there for all to see and shows clearly that indeed, he came into office to serve the Ghanaian people and develop this country with honesty, humility, selflessness and patriotism.
Till date, not a scintilla of evidence has been adduced by the NPP to substantiate any of the allegations of corruption they leveled against President Mahama when he was in office, including those made by no less a person than the opposition leader at the time, candidate Akufo-Addo that President Mahama had spent US$10 million on the printing of Presidential diaries and inflated the cost of the Ridge Hospital, Kasoa Interchange, Kumasi Airport Rehabilitation projects among others.
During his time in office, President Mahama fought corruption head-on no matter whose ox was gored including prosecuting his own appointees for alleged corrupt acts as he did in the GYEEDA case, a standard President Akufo-Addo has never and can never live up to.
Unlike, “The Mother Serpent of Corruption” who has corruption embedded in his DNA, President Mahama never shielded or defended any appointee of his who was found to have engaged in corruption.
So high was his commitment to the fight against corruption that a Deputy Minister in his government who privately expressed a mere intention to quit politics if she made US$1 million was asked to step aside.
His track record relative to the fight against corruption is unassailable and no amount of lies can change this fact.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media finally, let me deal with what is perhaps the most ridiculous and preposterous of all the claims the NPP made at their last press conference, which is the claim that they are fighting corruption because they are prosecuting some officials of the former NDC/Mahama government for corruption-related offences.
This claim is very ridiculous and laughable because if the fight against corruption was all about the prosecution of political opponents, then anybody at all can fight corruption.
This is because the mere prosecution of political opponents is the easiest path to the fight against corruption.
As President Mahama said sometime ago, the true test of one’s commitment to the fight against corruption doesn’t lie in the prosecution of their political opponents but rather, the prosecution their own.
In fact, most of the cases of criminal prosecution against some officials of the former NDC regime the NPP keeps bragging about are beginning to crumble like a pack of cards right before their very eyes.
What we are seeing is a desperate regime that is not interested in upholding fair trial and the interest of justice but determined to do everything possible under the sun to convict former NDC government officials at all cost for cheap political goal-scoring.
Classical examples that highlight this fact is the case against the former SSNIT Boss, Ernest Thompson which has been dismissed by the Supreme Court on grounds of defective charges and the case of the former Chief Executive Officer of Cocobod, Dr Stephen Opuni and Alhaji Seidu Agongo.
In the case of the Opuni trial, even after the Supreme Court of the Republic has prohibited the trial Judge, Justice Honyenugah from presiding over the case on grounds of his manifest prejudice and bias against the accused persons, the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame who is supposed to advance the interest of justice in all cases wants the Judge reinstated on grounds that starting the case afresh will be at great expense or cost to the State.
This is most unfortunate and a slap in the face of a fair trial and the administration of justice.
There are about four (4) High court judges at the Criminal Division of the High Court.
But for some reason, Justice Honyenugah, then Justice of the Court of Appeal was given a special warrant to preside over the prosecution of Dr Stephen Opuni and Seidu Agongo.
Few months after that, he was promoted to the Supreme Court by President Akufo-Addo.
We are talking about the judge who during the 2020 election campaign, publicly endorsed and campaigned for a second term for President Akufo-Addo when he visited his palace.
The judge who has said in open court that the Opuni case is distracting him from his Supreme Court duties hence he wants to conclude the case quickly so he can focus on his Supreme Court duties.
The judge who in his ruling on a submission of no case, decided to exclude from the evidence on record, as many as 18 exhibits that vindicates the case of the accused persons and which were tendered through various prosecution witnesses without any objection whatsoever.
The insistence by the Attorney General to have Justice Honyenugah continue with this case suggest that the Attorney General is desirous of having his own preferred judge preside over a case that he is prosecuting.
This singular conduct has the tendency to completely erode public confidence in the judiciary as an independent arm of Government.
The simple questions government and Godfred Dame must answer are: why must Justice Honyenugah preside over the Opuni trial at all cost despite the clear prejudice and bias he has exhibited against the accused persons?
Is he the only judge in Ghana who can preside over the Opuni case?
And more importantly, why must fair trial and justice be sacrificed on the alter of cost?
Clearly, Godfred Dame is engaged in head-hunting for his preferred judge in the Opuni trial for an outcome that should be obvious to any objective mind.
Most of the criminal cases against former NDC appointees that the NPP would have us believe are evidence of their commitment to the fight corruption are cases of persecution and not prosecution.
As such, these cannot and should not be believed as evidence of any genuine commitment to fight corruption.
Friends from the media, in conclusion, I wish to remind the NPP that Ghanaians are well aware of the fact that the wobbly and fraudulent fight against corruption President Akufo-Addo and Dr.
Bawumia have supervised in the last five (5) years has been lost completely.
No attempt to cover this up will suffice as the people of Ghana are sufficiently aware of which party really protects the public purse and which one merely pays lip service to it only to subject the same purse to abuse.
The only motivation for President Akufo-Addo, Dr.
Bawumia and the NPP to want to “Break the Eight” in their own words, is to help them perpetuate this regime of corruption, naked thievery, ostentation and impunity.
Most of all, their wish is that in 2024, Ghanaians will give them another opportunity to cover up their bad deeds and continue to dim the torch of accountability while further enriching themselves and impoverishing the Ghanaian people.
However, we are quite confident that come 2024, all well-meaning Ghanaians who wish to see the progress of our nation, will join forces with us to break the eight years of stealing, break the eight years of nepotism, break the eight years of lawlessness and impunity, break the eight years of deception and broken promises and break the eight years injustice and intolerance.
President Mahama will continue to express his gratitude to the people of Ghana for their support and would provide a voice for the voiceless to ensure good governance and accountability.
No amount of misrepresentations and verbal attacks would dissuade him from doing and saying what he deems to be right and in the interest of the nation.
We wish to encourage the media, who are the fourth Estate of realm and anti-corruption CSOs who are being abused by President Akufo-Addo for their relentless fight against corruption under him.
We salute your courage and patriotism.
Please, don’t give up or give in to the abuses and threats of this intolerant and despotic regime.
Let’s kick out in 2024 so we can hold them accountable for their thievery.
And let’s work together to rescue this country from the hands of this corrupt NPP government and build the prosperous and better Ghana we all yearn for.
Thanks for your attention and may God bless our homeland Ghana.
Monday, October 18, 2021 Good afternoon distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the media.
It is my singular honour to welcome you on behalf of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to this press conference which is intended to address the high and unbearable cost of living that Ghanaians are experiencing under the watch of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, which has largely been occasioned by steep increases in the prices of the Petroleum products over the last four and half years.
Please permit me to state from the word go that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia-NPP government has shown itself to be callous and does not appear a give a hoot about the plight of Ghanaians.
Otherwise, what can be the justification for the rampant and persistent increases in fuel prices we are witnessing in Ghana today.
As you may be aware, Ghanaians have once again been slapped with another increase in pump prices of fuel by the insensitive and clueless Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.
Only yesterday, the price of diesel and petrol was increased by 7%.
This is the ninth consecutive time in the year 2021 alone that the prices of petroleum products have gone up.
This has increased the price per gallon of diesel and petrol from about ¢21 as of January this year to about ¢31 currently.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, the rampant and persistent increase in the prices of fuel products we have witnessed under the watch of President Akufo-Addo and his deceptive Vice, Dr Bawumia, are a direct product of their insensitive and bad leadership.
The introduction of a raft of new draconian taxes on Petroleum products such as; the introduction of 20 pesewas Energy Sector Levy on every litre of diesel and petrol; the increase of 18 pesewas in ESLA per Kilogram of LPG; the introduction of a 10 pesewas sanitation (“borla”) tax on every litre of diesel and petrol; the introduction of a 1% COVID levy on NHIL & VAT, by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government, coupled with the free-fall of the Ghana Cedi which has been occasioned by their gross economic mismanagement, are the major factors responsible for the persistent and steep increase in the prices of fuel products.
The introduction of these regressive and draconian taxes by a group of people who berated the erstwhile Mahama regime for “over-taxing” Ghanaians and a group who promised to move Ghana from taxation to production when elected, smacks of deception and insensitivity of monumental proportions.
The cascading effect of these draconian tax measures, has among other things, led to an escalation in the prices of fuel products, transport fares, building materials, food products and other commodities on the market, without a commensurate increase in incomes, thereby making the cost of living unbearable for the vast majority of Ghanaians.
This is the cause of the excruciating economic hardships Ghanaians are currently experiencing.
It will be recalled that a gallon of petrol and diesel was sold at about GHc16 in December 2016, when the NDC/Mahama administration was leaving office.
The NPP-led by their then Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and Vice Presidential Candidate, Dr Bawumia, lambasted and berated President Mahama for this and promised to scrap some taxes on Petroleum products, particularly the Energy Sector Levies and the Special Petroleum Tax so as to significantly reduce the prices of fuel.
I am sure you would recall how the NPP in their 2016 manifesto described ESLA as a nuisance tax and promised to scrap same when elected.
Unfortunately, many Ghanaians fell for these lies and voted for the NPP.
Little did they know that this and other similar sugar-coated promises of the NPP were pure sophistry.
Instead of scrapping the ESLA as promised, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia-NPP government has collateralized it for a loan which has extended its intended duration from five years to now 15 years and increased it by over 20%.
As if that was not enough, this government introduced a new Energy Sector Levy of 20 pesewas on every litre of diesel and petrol just this year.
Additionally, they have introduced a sanitation (“borla”) tax of 10 pesewas on every litre of petrol and diesel.
As a result of this and other increases in existing taxes on fuel such as; the increase of the BOST Margin from 3 pesewas to 9 pesewas per litre representing an increase of 200%; the increase in the Fuel Marking Margin from 3 pesewas to 5 pesewas representing an increase of 67%; and the increase in the Road Fund Levy from 41 pesewas to 46 pesewas, a gallon of petrol and diesel which was sold at about GHc16.00 in December 2016 is today is selling at about ¢31.
This is almost double the price they berated NDC/Mahama administration for.
It is therefore clear from the foregoing facts, that the high increase in the prices of fuel products we have experienced in recent time, is largely as a result of the many draconian taxes and tax increases this government has callously introduced on fuel.
That is the major contributing factor.
Friends from the media, this astronomical increment in the prices of fuel commodities by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government and its concomitant effect on transport fares, have led to steep increases in general prices of goods and services thereby making life unbearable for the vast majority of Ghanaians.
A cursory look at the Construction industry, with a focus on the prices of building materials, reveals a very worrying trend that is of major concern to many Ghanaians.
A 50kg bag of cement that was sold at ¢27.00 in the year 2016, is being sold at ¢52 and in some cases above this price today.
A tonne of iron rods (16mm) that was sold at about ¢2,800 in 2016 is today going for ¢5,300, while a packet of aluminium roofing sheet that was sold at about ¢520 in 2016 is being sold at about ¢1,200 today.