Politics of Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Source: rainbowradioonline.com

Minority’s call for investigation into Ford saga frivolous - Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama President John Dramani Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has maintained that there was nothing wrong with his acceptance of the Ford Expedition gift presented to him by a Burkinabe contractor.

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is currently investigating the saga to establish if there was a case of conflict of interest.

The petition was filed by the Youth League of the Convention People's Party (CPP).

A motion was also filed by the Minority prompting a recall of Parliament.

The Minority had wanted a by partisan committee instituted to investigate the matter.

But the Speaker dismissed the motion stating that, CHRAJ is the constitutionally mandated body to investigate such cases.

Responding to these moves, President Mahama in an interview with Paul Adom Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV described the move as frivolous waste of taxpayers money”.

The Minority lambasted the Speaker accusing him of shielding President Mahama.

However, the president in the interview said, what the minority did was a waste of the country’s resources.

He said, the summons required that transportation allowance to be given to the MPs among other incentives which cost the taxpayer, he says adding the action was uncalled for. “If it was a motion to impeach me then that would have been a totally different matter but I am not angry I am sad,” he said.

Joy News' Mannaseh Azure's latest investigative piece revealed that President Mahama received the $100,000 vehicle from the Burkinabe Djibril Oumarou Kanazoe.

The contractor who is a friend of the President went on to receive three government contracts but he rejected the last one after the story broke out.

He constructed the $650,000 Ghana Embassy wall in Burkina Faso and the Dodo-Pepeso section of the Eastern Corridor Road Project.

Some anti-corruption campaigners and some opposition parties chided President Mahama for exposing Ghana to international ridicule.