Dr. Dominic Ayine
Eight persons have so far been questioned by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) for their alleged roles in the National Service Authority (NSA) ‘ghost’ names scandal.
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, who disclosed this yesterday during a press briefing, did not provide details of the questioning due to the fact that investigations were still ongoing.
Although he did not mention any names, it is public knowledge that Deputy Director of Operations at the NSA, Kwaku Ohene Gyan as well as former Deputy Director of the NSA, Gifty Oware-Mensah were arrested by the National Intelligence Bureau for their alleged involvement in the scandal.
It is not yet clear what their roles in the scandal is, but they were detained by the NIB, questioned by officers and later released.
The Attorney General revealed yesterday that eight (8) persons have so far been interrogated by the NIB and “a good number of them have cooperated with the NIB investigations.”
He also indicated that some officials of the NSA have begun ‘singing,’ pointing out that his office is “working diligently on several dossiers that will shock the conscience of the nation.”
Dr. Ayine revealed that there is now evidence of payments that were made into the accounts of the top executives of the NSA by vendors and staff of the Authority.
Dr. Ayine also disclosed that there is evidence that in November 2024, the Chief Executive Officer of NSA and others paid a Ghanaian Member of Parliament (MP) to ‘kill’ the story about the scandal in the media and to defend them.
He added that this is a developing story, hence he would not make further comments on it since investigations were still ongoing.
Gifty Oware-Mensah, returned to Ghana in March amidst growing calls for accountability in some alleged shady activities at the NSA, leading to the state losing millions of Ghana Cedis.
She had been out of the country since the December 7, 2024 election, leading some to speculate she was absconding from justice over her alleged role in the about 80,000 ‘ghost’ names scandal at the NSA, where monthly allowances were allegedly paid to non-existent personnel over a period of time.
But she returned to the country just as rumours were beginning to swell over potential action by National Intelligence Bureau to arrest her over the scandal.
Her return also coincided with the arrest of former Deputy Director of Operations at the NSA, Kwaku Ohene Gyan, popularly known as Osonoba, who was detained by the NIB in connection with the scandal.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak