Flashback: Vice-President donating the items to some residents
Joseph Yieleh Chireh, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Wa West, has indicated that Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is being sabotaged internally to thwart his presidential ambition.
The MP’s comment follows reports of the Vice-President donating expired food items to people affected by the spillage of water from Bagre Dam in Wa, the Upper West Regional Capital.
It has emerged that there was no deliberate plan to add the expired food to the items donated by Dr. Bawumia to the flood victims.
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) said the expired food items were “mistakenly” added to the items distributed to the flood victims and took “full responsibility for the said mistakes.”
Mr Chireh, however, rejected the rationalization by NADMO, saying that the expired food items were deliberately planted in the relief items to hamper Dr Bawumia’s chances of succeeding President Akufo-Addo after his tenure.
He told journalists on Wednesday that “if the thing [donation] had gone well the political outcome would have been good for the vice-president…I believe people want to sabotage the vice-president in case there’s a room for him to become president.”
According to him, “This particular issue is so unfortunate. But it appears they want to put him in a very bad light in the media so that Ghanaians will always associate the negatives with the vice-president.”
But NADMO said that it was taking steps to address the anomaly, adding that it would recall the expired oil.
NADMO debunked reports that the products were procured by the vice-president, saying the expired oil were to be disposed of.
Executives of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the region raised concerns after noticing the expired dates on the oil.
“All items distributed to the three Northern Regions were not purchased by the Vice President’s Office, but were all supplied by NADMO.
“NADMO takes full responsibility for the said mistakes and assures the general public that no such unfortunate incident will recur.
By Melvin Tarlue