General News of Thursday, 13 October 2016

Source: 3news.com

Cedi redenomination: Bawumia must give full disclosure - Abodakpi

Dan Abodakpi Dan Abodakpi

A member of the National Democratic Congress, Dan Abodakpi, is insisting Dr Mahamudu Bawumia gives a forthright disclosure on how much was spent on Ghana’s redenomination in 2007, despite official figures from the Bank of Ghana.

Although the Bank of Ghana had as far back as November 2007 stated the redenomination of the country’s currency cost 66.2 million dollars, President Mahama at a campaign rally Tuesday said he was unaware of how much it cost and challenged the New Patriotic Party running mate to tell Ghanaians the cost of the exercise.

But Dr Bawumia in a Facebook response said the president’s question suggests he is “poorly briefed”, and that if indeed he wants to know, he could have ask his vice, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur who was the Governor of BoG at the time.

“Such petty propaganda should be beneath someone of the stature of a President. It is clear he is very poorly briefed, but when a President decides to join the bandwagon of propaganda, he only ends up embarrassing himself,” Dr Bawumia said.

But Dan Abodakpi told 3FM he believes the debate over the issue is not conclusive, saying, “If a direct question is put to him [Bawumia], one would expect that he would just give a forthright answer.”

He told Kwakye Afreh-Nuamah on 3FM’s Midday news Wednesday that it is not enough for Dr Bawumia to say “the former governor [Amissah-Arthur] was there so we should just get the information from him” When the host averted his mind to the fact that the Bank of Ghana has made public the amount spent on the exercise, the former Member of Parliament for Keta claimed he was unaware.

“I am not aware of those figures that you are telling me and so, one would just expect that he would just provide a direct response to it… How many Ghanaians know that answer that he has given…we will have to investigate it,” he said