.... The Bridge Advocacy Group ?

The rate at which President Atta Mills and his ministers, in particular the Minister for Information Fritz Baffour and his Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa are giving state funds to all kinds of individuals and groups, should be a cause for concern to all Ghanaians.

The latest group to join the bandwagon is a group calling itself The Bridge Advocacy group, a ragtag army of social misfits , ex- convicts and thieves. Documents available to the New Free Press show Mr Fritz Baffour and Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, managed to give them 20,000 Ghana cedis to set up an office near the Adarbraka police station and help them register as an NGO at the Department of Social Welfare. The New Free Press is particularly concerned about the way state money is being used to support individuals who have been involved in dubious, criminal activity in the past.

Bright Kinful and Godwin Tamakloe, an ex smuggler who was jailed for 7 years by the high court in 2006 for leading a syndicate smuggling premix fuel meant for fishermen based in Keta and Woe in the Volta region to Togo and Benin. We would like to know why Mr Tamakloe is out of prison when he has not finished serving his sentence!

Mr Bright Kinful who now calls himself a deputy general secretary of this group is really celebrating Christmas early again, so soon after duping David Lamptey, one of the NDC’s biggest financers out of 5,000 dollars over a dubious research project on the strengths and weaknesses of the NDC in the Eastern and Greater Accra Region. This money was used to buy a ticket for his girlfriend to travel to the USA and to buy a plasma TV . Now he is back again with others with a social and advocacy group to milk the state and its complacent ministers.

There are critical issues facing the country today . The terrible accidents killing thousands of Ghanaians on our roads, the high rate of joblessness among the youth, the rising prices of food as well as poor water supply which is getting worse by the day. Anybody who means well for Ghana should encourage the government of the day to solve these problems, instead of setting up dubious groups with questionable characters to cream state funds for their personal benefit.

Roland Amankwanor New free Press Accra