Vodafone Deal (1): $2000 Bribe For Selected Media Houses

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More revelations are emerging from the Vodafone bribery scandal that rocked the nation following the disclosure made by P.C. Appiah Ofori, Member of Parliament (MP) for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa constituency.

The Daily Democrat has discovered another bribery scandal in the same deal; this time around it involves some members of the inky fraternity.

Some prominent journalists have been cited as having collected various amounts of money in dollars from the company that took over the ownership of Ghana Telecom, the national communications organization.

The amounts range from US $1,000 to US $3,000 dollars to each of the journalists and media houses. In addition to that, they were promised juicy adverts in the event of Vodafone Plc winning the controversial sales.

The nation was shocked to the bone when Hon. P.C Appiah Ofori, a member of the then ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), which approved the deal in parliament, revealed that all those on the then majority side who voted for the deal were given US $5,000.

He said the money was allegedly sent to the Castle, the NPP’s “kickback headquarters” and distributed to the members, perhaps including Nana Akufo-Addo, since he participated in the voting.

Attempts have been made to discredit him by revoking his membership, which would result the loss of his parliamentary seat, leading to a bye-election in his constituency.

Concerning this new revelation, some of the media houses were used to promote Vodafone Plc. as a viable company to handled the milky Ghana Telecom. Vodafone bought 70% of Ghana Telecom at a cost of $950 million, a fee considered as very low when viewed against the assets of the company and the liabilities that the government of Ghana incurred.

The Daily Democrat is withholding the names of the persons and media houses involved, some of whom were called to secret meeting and briefed on how to promote the deal, in a similar fashion as the sale of shares in Goldfields Ghana Limited, now Anglogold Ashanti Goldfields.

Prior to the real deal, many media houses turned into experts who knew everything about the deal. Whiles some supported Randgold, others gave their weight to Anglogold, with monies allegedly changing hands.