Actor John Dumelo says he bought the Land Cruiser V8 which was seized by the taskforce tasked to retrieve state vehicles.

The taskforce, shortly after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over power, seized a V8 being used by Mr Dumelo, alleging that it belonged to the state.

Mr Kwame Baffoe, Supervisor of the Task Force on the Retrieval of State Assets, had said when Mr Dumelo was found with the car, he had said the vehicle was given to him by former First Lady Lordina Mahama and had no documents to prove it was his.

But reacting to the controversy surrounding the V8, the award-winning actor said he bought the car but had to let it go because he could afford to buy a new one.

“I will never keep a government car; I’m not a government official so I will never keep a government car. I bought the car from somebody. I bought it, so at that time I won’t say it’s a government car or not a government car. Somebody came and said it’s a government car that I have, so I said: ‘Fine, if it’s a government car, keep the car. What is a car?’ …After that happened I bought a new car. This car saga is something that when it happened, I was like: ‘It’s something that has happened so if somebody says it is theirs they should just keep it,” he told Doreen Andoh on Joy FM.

“In 2010 I bought a car, 2011 I bought another car, 2013 I bought another one, in 2015 I bought another one, so it’s something that I can afford. So when this happened, I said let them take it because of course they were going around saying ‘we will seize your car’. ...It’s a car, I let it go. You can have an accident tomorrow and the car is damaged, so after all I said: ‘To hell with it’, I bought myself a new car and moved on.”

Mr Dumelo, who is a keen supporter of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has been quiet on the political scene after the NDC’s defeat in the 2016 election.

Although a poster of him contesting for National Youth Organiser of the party has emerged on social media, the actor-cum-entrepreneur said he was yet to decide on his political future.