.....over Ghana’s face of corruption charge

Current National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, has gone bunkum on radio over allegations of corruption levelled against him that he is “the face of corruption”.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Secretary General, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, had lambasted Jake for calling the government corrupt when he reacted to the State of the Nation address presented by President John Dramani Mahama. Mr Nketia, also known as General Mosquito, had expressed surprise at his corruption allegation against the NDC government, claiming that Jake had no moral right calling the NDC corrupt.

Gen Mosquito, in reaction to Jake’s allegations of corruption in the cocoa sector against President Mahama, that 200,000 tons of the foreign exchange earner had been looted, stated, “this is especially disturbing coming from a man like Jacob Obetsebi -Lamptey who has come to represent all that is corrupt, immoral and unethical about governance through his shameful and greedy looting of state lands and bungalows. If he wants evidence of corruption let him only reflect over the fact that he paid a paltry GHC 390,000 for over an acre of prime land which was valued at the time at some GHC2 million.”

Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, however, flared up on Radio Gold, an Accra-based radio station over the statement made by Mr. Nketia, claiming that his allegations of corruption were founded on the Africa Watch publication that nicknamed Ghana the ‘Republic of Corruption.’

He was infuriated by the litany of allegations listed before him by General Mosquito, key among them was the purchase of a state bungalow he occupied as a minister but later bought at a pittance. He explained that the house was leased but not sold to him as was being claimed by Mr. Nketiah.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah poured out a litany of corrupt acts under former President Kufuor, asking Jake to ponder over them. “He can also ponder over the fact that the government that he served in doled out prime state lands to the then President, his chief of staff, ministers and party apparatchik like confetti-a practice which was in clear breach of the trust that the people of Ghana had reposed in them to manage these lands on their behalf.”