Since the Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia claimed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) blew the cost of four interchanges on the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange alone (which was $260million) , there have been various attempts by the opposition party to defend and refuse the claim.
In light of this, Communications Director of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi was ‘caught dazing’ on CitiTV’s ‘Point of View when host, Bernard Avle told him, his colleague Felix Kwakye Ofosu earlier admitted that the NDC cannot challenge the $260million claims by Bawumia.
Sammy insisted that the NDC does not in any way side with the $260million and that the cost of the interchange was rather $90million.
“The problem with this is last year sitting on the same chair, Felix Kwakye Ofosu said nobody in his party has disputed the $260million claim. He denied that your party ever said anything about the cost,” Bernard Avle told Sammy.
In a rebuttal Sammy noted, “that was before our press conference and before we appeared on NewsFile. He rectified that on NewsFile.”
However, Bernard Avle insisted saying, “aren’t we splitting heads here? Your spokesperson said otherwise. I can play for you what Felix did.”
Explaining himself, Sammy Gyamfi noted that the Vice President rather accumulated the cost of two separate and distinct projects [the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and the Ring Road Flyover] which created the impression it was the cost of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange alone.
“It is important to emphasize that, the two projects (the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and the Ring Road Flyover) are distinct from each other and were separately approved by Parliament at different periods for different purposes. The scope of work of the two projects are totally different, and so it is disingenuous and shameful for Dr. Bawumia to lump the cost of the two projects together and create the impression that same is inflated.”
“On the issue of the cost of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, the claims Dr Bawumia made are misleading and not factual. But to break that down for the ordinary Ghanaian to understand, what Dr. Bawumia did was simply mischievous. He told a blatant lie when he said the cost of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange project is $260 million and we need to settle that issue once and for all because if you check the parliamentary Hansard of 16th August 2012, when the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange project was approved, it was very clear that the cost of the project as approved by Parliament was £74.8 million equivalent to $90 million at the time and Kwame Nkrumah interchange had only one phase, there was no phase two.” Sammy Gyamfi vehemently protested.
This comes after Dr Bawumia made claims that money the NDC spent on constructing the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange could have build four more interchanges.
He noted that the Tema, Pokuase, Obetsebi Lamptey and Tamale Interchanges were all at a cost of 289 Million dollars, but the Nkrumah Interchange alone under the NDC cost 260 Million dollars.
Source: GhanaFeed.com
