Politics
Mahama Had Courage to Prosecute Own Appointees, Akufo-Addo Doesn’t – Murtala Mohammed
The MP for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, has said the Akufo-Addo-led administration lacks the courage to fight corruption, hence the country’s abysmal performance in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show, Mr Mohammed stated that President Akufo-Addo has been unable to prosecute any accused person in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who has been fingered in a corrupt act since assuming office.
“In 2016, the NPP made their campaign at the back of corruption. Tell me one single minister and agency that they didn’t accuse of engaging in corruption. Every single minister was accused of being corrupt. That explained why we had to move from 47 per cent to 43 per cent (on the CPI) in 2016. When they came to power, they held a press conference and accused Dr Opuni. The presser was addressed by the current Agric Minister. Dr Opuni was accused of chopping $400million.
In court, they didn’t see the need to talk about $400million. You had Ursula Owusu and Co who came into Parliament with placards stating thieves. All the allegations they made against President Mahama and his appointees, they did not have evidence. They accused Mahama of building hotels in Dubai and the Corruption Index is anchored on perception.”
The MP also said the President has not prosecuted his appointees accused of corruption-related activities.
He noted that former President John Mahama unlike President Akufo-Addo went as far as prosecuting his own appointees culpable to register his commitment to fighting corruption.
“President Mahama had the courage to prosecute his appointees when they did wrong. Corruption is based on perception. You need to investigate and possibly prosecute to establish whether that perception of corruption is real or not. You don’t have the courage to do that.”
