Nkrabeah Effah Dartey
Private legal practitioner and former minister and MP Nkrabeah Effah Dartey has taken on the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) saying they have no moral authority to discuss issues of corruption.
He said that when it comes to corruption the NDC led by Mr. John Dramani Mahama when in government was worse, insisting that Ghana has not had a leader “as corrupt as former President John Dramani Mahama and his cabal of thieves.”
The lawyer cum prolific writer was reacting to a news conference organized by the NDC where their Communications Officer Sammy Gyamfi catalogued what they said to be corruption under the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
He said on Class FM in Accra yesterday that “Sammy Gyamfi is playing an old song, an old song which we have heard so many times before. Compared to when John Mahama was President of Ghana, the corruption that took place in this country has he forgotten so soon where a whole car was caught on the road to Kumasi full of millions of cedis. What happened to that case? Nobody knows. No official explanation (given) and even the auditor-general’s report (had said) the accounts of central government had gotten missing and cannot be accounted for under the watch of John Mahama.”
“So, if there’s anybody who is more corrupt than John Mahama and his cabal of thieves, I wonder if we can get anybody…” he fired.
Lawyer Effah Dartey said “I think the majority of Ghanaians agree to the principle that NPP are better trustees of the national purse than the NDC and that is why we won 2020 and that is why we are going to win 2024 and we are going to break the eight-year jinx and the NDC will not come to power until the next 40 to 50 years.”
He said “He (Sammy Gyamfi) is accusing the New Patriotic Party administration of corruption. It is an attractive song, an attractive melody, which all opposition parties throughout the world, always use to castigate those in government.”
“What I expect Sammy Gyamfi to do or to tell Ghanaians is to give specific analysis, specific details that the minister for so so and so has done so so and so; that this contract or this or that has been undersigned or over-invoiced”.
“Give specific examples,” he said, adding: “We have appointed a special prosecutor whose job is to ensure sanity on the public purse, so, if you think you have evidence of corruption against any public official, more so ministers of state, and you’re accusing them of corruption, carry all your data to the special prosecutor and secure conviction”.
“That will make your case credible but if you go to stand on a treetop and hold a press conference and you use words like ‘corruption, abysmal failure, incompetent’ and so on, you make me laugh and it is sad”, the former lawmaker said.
By Ernest Kofi Adu