Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah being interviewed by the press
KUMASI MEMBERS of Parliament (MPs) Bloc, a group of parliamentarians from the Ashanti Region, has raised concerns about nolle prosequi filed by the Attorney General (AG), Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, to free some former appointees of the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, indicating it undermines President John Dramani Mahama’s fight against corruption.
“The various nolle prosequi that have been filed by the Attorney General, raises serious issues about the government’s fight against corruption. It raises issues about its sincerity, it raises issues about its good faith, it raises issues about whether or not the Attorney General we have is not going to be a partisan Attorney General, who is going to pursue just members who are not members of the NDC,” Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, secretary of the bloc said.
According to the MPs, Dr. Asiama was involved in the supervision of banks that collapsed, hence he does not merit the position as Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
“We all know when the banking sector collapsed, he was involved to the extent that following investigation, he was accused in two different cases of complicity and culpability in those cases. One of them was the trial in the UT Bank case. He was an accused there. The other one is a trial of the uniBank cases – he was also an accused there.”
Mr. Baffour Awuah made these assertions at the Suame Magazine Hub in the Suame Municipality when the Kumasi MPs bloc paid a visit to the Suame Auto Mechanic Hub to commiserate with artisans who were affected in the recent fire outbreak which gutted the area and destroyed properties, running into millions of cedis.
Chaired by Mr. Francis Assenso Boakye, the MP for Bantama Constituency, the bloc is made of ten MPs from different constituencies in Kumasi.
Speaking to the media, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, the MP for Manhyia South Constituency, challenged the nolle prosequi filed by the AG recently to discharge people standing trials in court, asking “are we saying that now, being a card-bearing member of the NDC is going to make you immune to criminal prosecution in this country? Is that what the Attorney General is saying?”
He observed that this is the major decision Dr. Ayine has made since taking office as Attorney General, adding that the decision by the AG indicates how important it was to him and the NDC government.
“It indicates how important it meant to the government, right? To the extent that one of them has even been made the Governor of the Bank of Ghana. What message are we sending to Ghanaians, that the whole resetting agenda was making sure we are going to launder our people and then pursue others,” the Manhyia South MP asked.
“And more importantly, it raises another question: Is President Mahama more sincere about his fight against corruption after all? Is it the case that he is taking his people and he is not going to pursue anybody?” he quizzed.
Mr. Awuah added that the withdrawal of the cases raises fundamental questions, and the AG has to take a second look at what he has done “because it is a major political risk for all of us as elite politicians.”
FROM David Afum, Kumasi