News

Friday, March 11, 2016

Officials involved in M&J scandal must resign, says Nana Addo
Audrey Micah, Ghanadot

Accra, Oct 9, Ghanadot - The past 2008 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo has commented for the first time on the raging Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal.

He said, officials involved should resign, and pave way for investigations, just as it is done elsewhere in the world.

“I believe that is the view of most people in this country and I believe that elsewhere in the world that is what is happening…in my view what is happening elsewhere should apply here as well.”

In an interview on Citi FM, Nana Akuffo Addo said, the Mabey and Johnson case is a great embarrassment to Ghana and for that matter the NDC government must act swiftly, through due process, to establish the innocence or otherwise of the indicted persons.

“It’s a matter of very great embarrassment to our nation that in foreign jurisdictions and foreign courts Ghanaian officials are being stigmatized and mentioned in this way.” He said.

The Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrisu has returned from the UK where she went gathering more evidence from the UK’s Serious Fraud Office to decide what line of action President Mills should take.

Her trip has however drawn sharp criticisms from individuals and groups who believe that an independent body like the Commission on Human Rights and administrative Justice, (CHRAJ) should be mandated to handle the investigations.

The critics say an independent commission of inquiry would help erase perceptions that the neutrality of the government would be compromised.

Nana Addo’s position is not at variance with that assertion. According to him, “issues of corruption are issues of criminal action. Generally it’s either the CHRAJ or the police that handles such matters. I don’t see that there is anything in the circumstances of this case that changes that.”

The NPP Presidential hopeful disclosed that the Attorney General’s role in this case is to advise the president on the line of action to take and not to conduct investigations.

Ghanadot