The General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Koduah, says President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has not been a hindrance to the fight against corruption.
He rubbished claims by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the President has been clearing his appointees accused of corruption-related offences even when state institutions have not concluded their probe.
In an interview on Face to Face on Citi TV, with Umaru Sanda Amadu, the NPP chief scribe said, “I don’t think the President has been a hindrance towards any corruption investigations. How? Which situation are you referring to? I’m not aware that the President has cleared anybody. I don’t have information that the CID was doing investigations and the President halted it. Unless you want the President to be nosing around to ensure that whether something has happened or not he should bring people to book”.
He believes the state institutions should be allowed to work adding that frivolous allegations by the NDC will not wash until a court proves otherwise.
“Until a court says that the act of a person amounts to corruption, I will not sit down here and make allegations. We should allow state institutions to work and when they bring these cases to court and the court comes to a final determination, that is when we successfully say that indeed this person is corrupt or not,” he argued.
Reacting to a former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu’s comments that President Akufo-Addo is “a mother serpent of corruption,” Mr. Koduah asserted that, “the man has said several things, he also said several things against former President John Dramani Mahama, so we should take it to be true that he’s very corrupt?”
The President in 2018 said no serious evidence was found against his appointees accused of dipping their hands into the public purse. In 2021, he also said it’s not his job to clear or convict his appointees of any acts of corruption.
Again, the President in 2023 rejected reports to the effect that government blatantly misapplied funds intended for the country’s fight against COVID-19.
President Akufo-Addo defended the spending while delivering the State of the Nations Address in Parliament on Wednesday, March 8, maintaining that allegations that the government misused the funds are both false and a figment of one’s imagination.
The Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu who was fingered in the Auditor General’s report of misapplying COVID-19 funds was honoured by the state with the Volta of Companion award.
