…Taxis Are For Ghanaians Not NDC Foot Soldiers

A false publication by the Daily Guide newspaper to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians to fulfill their pay masters’ agenda has failed with MASLOC countering the publication and setting the records straight.

The Daily Guide, one of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) papers, in its Wednesday July 4, 2012 publication carried an article with the banner headline, “400 CARS For NDC Foot soldiers,’ in which it accused MASLOC of committing such an act.
However, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Micro-finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Mustapha Abubakar, has rubbished the Daily Guide report stating that MASLOC has no intention of limiting its activities to mere partisan politics, because the policy of the organization is to help Ghanaians who are into small businesses. He described the publication by the Daily Guide as false, noting that it is not ready to engage in corruptible acts.

The Daily Guide newspaper reported on Wednesday that about 400 brand new Hyundai Verna saloon cars parked at the forecourt of Ghana’s Parliament had been converted into taxis allegedly to be given to NDC foot-soldiers.

The report also indicated that the NDC had previously distributed Hyundai I10, popularly called ‘Atta Cambu, to foot-soldiers and serial callers including media friends in some media houses.

However, speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii-Sen on Wednesday, Mustapha Abubakar noted that MASLOC has decided not to engage in any political activities because upon assuming office in 2009, they (MASLOC) saw that the previous NPP government had given out cars to its foot-soldiers resulting in huge debts. He cautioned the media to be circumspect in their reportage pointing out that some of these publications demoralise interested people who are not members of any political party.

“What the paper is saying is not true. How can you share this number of cars to foot-soldiers when they are more than the figure being quoted? The institution is there for all Ghanaians and not a section of them. We are not ready to do politics like the previous government did, and run into huge losses”, he stated.

Mustapha Abubakar stressed that MASLOC will not deal with foot-soldiers because if the cars or any assistance is given to them, retrieving them will be difficult.

“If you give these vehicles out to foot-soldiers as reported, these people will not pay because they will think it is being given to them as appreciation for their loyalty to the party. We cannot do that at all because we treat everybody fairly,” he stated.
He however confirmed that there are some cars being given out to drivers with unions but not foot-soldiers.

”We are giving cars out to drivers who have registered with unions across the country. We started with Greater Accra today and tomorrow to the Central and Western Regions, so we are not doing any business with foot-soldiers”.

“We have agreed that the cars parked at the Parliament House will be moved out in tens. What we are doing there is to emboss them with MASLOC stickers not spraying them there. Anytime we want to turn them into taxis, we take them to garages and not in the open as reported. Have they seen any spraying equipment at the place,” he queried?