A passionate request by foremost anti-graft campaigner and former New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, Paul Collins Appiah Ofori to President Akufo Addo to serve on the Board of the Office of the Special Prosecutor has resulted in bad blood between the duo.
According to the maverick politician, soon after Mr Martin Amidu was appointed Special Prosecutor, he petitioned President Akufo Addo to appoint him a member of the Governing Board to help him prosecute his agenda of fighting corruption but that was not granted.
Lamenting how he has been ignored by President Akufo Addo, Mr Appiah Ofori in an interview with TV3’s Johny Hughes monitored by awakenewsroom.com said “I wrote the letter as soon as the Special Prosecutor was appointed. I just wanted to go there to investigate all these Auditor General’s reports. Some of the Auditor General’s reports are not comprehensive enough.”
Short of citing his request for the frosty relationship between the two, the anti-corruption crusader said “either he has blocked my line or changed his line. If I call him it doesn’t go [through]. I personally petitioned Akufo-Addo that I wanted to be sent to the board of the [Office of] Special Prosecutor so that I will become the investigator but no response from him.
He further revealed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has neglected him after winning the 2016 elections to become president.
“I championed Akufo-Addo and put him up from 2007 up to the time he became president 2017. I am not happy about my abandonment. I am not happy about the way Akufo-Addo doesn’t know me again.
Reflecting on his political life, he regretted not taking up a position in the NDC government, saying “As a nation, as a country for the better of Ghana, I think if I had placed Ghana’s interest above party and got into that position, I think I would have been able to get all those engaged in corruption prosecuted. So for that, I have regretted.”
He revealed that ”John Mahama himself called me and told me he wanted me to go and play a role in his administration and I told him that if he himself engages in corruption I would not hesitate to expose him”.
“He told me that was why he wanted me to come and be a check on him and his ministers but I didn’t take the position because if I should join NDC administration, it will mean that I had abandoned NPP and I had abandoned Akufo-Addo so I told him I won’t take the position but any corrupt practices that will take place in his administration which will come to my notice, I will draw his attention to it.”
By: Mina Ekua Hayford / awakenewsroom.com