rlg EXPOSED!

…As It Meddles In Politics

By Citizen Political Desk

The Citizen has established that Ghana’s indigenous mobile phone and laptop assembling company, rlg Communications, is gradually deviating from its core corporate mandate.

The company has now descended into the Ghanaian political landscape and is seriously meddling in the affairs of the ruling National Democratic Congress party, a la recent elections that took place across the length and breadth of the country to elect parliamentary candidates for the 2012 polls.

Intelligence picked up by this paper indicates that rlg Communications supported some parliamentary candidates with products from their staples, namely mobile phones and laptops.

Checks by The Citizen in the North Tongu Constituency in the Volta region have revealed that Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Deputy Minister for Information and eventual winner of the contest in the Constituency allegedly doled out branded rlg phones and laptops to majority of delegates in a subtle but desperate attempt to compromise delegates before the election in the Constituency.

It has also come to our attention that Dr. Mustapha Ahmed, the Member of Parliament for East Ayawaso Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, who got the nod to contest for the seat in the 2012 elections distributed over 300 rlg branded laptops running into millions of Ghana cedis in return for their votes.

These rlg laptops which the NDC parliamentary aspirants distributed to delegates, The Citizen has gathered, were allegedly diverted from the Basic School Computerization Project in return for the company to get political blessing for growth of its business in the country.

The Basic School Computerization Project is a partnership venture between rlg Communications and the Ministry of Education aimed at making computers available to Ghanaian pupils in basic schools.

Since the Atta Mills-John Mahama administration assumed control of the political administration of the country, the company has been allegedly receiving political support from the ruling National Democratic Congress Government for the growth of its business and other activities.

Government through the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare is currently partnering rlg Communications to undertake and implement projects such as Persons With Disability (PWDs) ICT Project and the Basic School Computerization Project.

PWD ICT Project will see 5,000 Persons With Disability in the country trained in the fields of computer and mobile phone repairs, business development as well as pro-poor entrepreneurship programmes to empower them to get employed and earn a decent living.

When Ms. Millicent Atuguba, the Communications manageress of rlg Communications, was contacted to comment on the matter, she denied that her outfit was supporting NDC parliamentary aspirants with their products in pursuit of their parliamentary aspirations. She said the two functionaries of the President Atta Mills Government bought the said products at discounted prices from the company, adding that her outfit will not give its products for free to the above mentioned parliamentary aspirants because such a venture will lead to the collapse of the company.

She said the company has supported a number of state officials who were part of the just ended NDC primaries, with some products on a discount basis. According to her, the decision was part of the company’s marketing strategy to make certain that the company’s products are sold out.

Source: The Citizen Newspaper (+233 27 731 4655) thecitizen.news@yahoo.com / www.thecitizenghana.com