Lawal (right) and Aboagye
There is agitation for the outright dismissal of the security coordinator of state-run transport company – Metro Mass Transit (MMT) Limited.
Fuseini Lawal has reportedly confessed secretly planting a recording device in the office of the managing director of the company, Bernett Aboagye in order to extort money from the him (Aboagye).
Mr. Aboagye was asked to step aside from his job in April this year over a purported tape recording in which he was alleged to have plotted with some workers to milk the MMT through the purchase of 300 new buses.
Lawal had reportedly threatened to leak the damning audio conversation if Mr. Aboagye failed to pay him $1 million.
The MD was subsequently suspended following a decision taken by the board of directors of MMT to allow for investigation into the allegation made against him after he had parted with GH¢40,000.
The security coordinator had petitioned the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, over the matter, alleging that Mr Aboagye and a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Kwame Amoako Tuffuor, attempted to bribe him with GH¢40,000 when he confronted them with his evidence, even though Mr. Aboagye had accused him (Lawal) of blackmail.
But sources in the security circles told DAILY GUIDE that Mr Lawal, who is believed to be closely linked to the immediate past MD of the MMT, ought to be sacked outright.
According to the sources, Lawal’s case cannot be considered as whistle blowing but rather security threat and blackmail.
They indicated that it was “ethically” and “professionally” wrong for the security coordinator to plant such a device in the office of the MD, insisting that the action is criminal.
Anger
The Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has condemned the action of Lawal.
“The security coordinator had the confidence to go and meet with the National Security Coordinator and other big men and has confessed that he bugged the MD’s office. What is going on in this country, and you entertain such person? That guy has to be arrested. He bugged the office and has transcribed all the recording and he’s moving about with it? The guy, I’m warning him, if this country were to be America, they would have taken care of him easily,” he charged.
“He’s lucky that we’re loose, and the NPP understands democracy more than Britain and America, so he has the guts to meet with big men and play the tape, what?” Ken fumed.
By Melvin Tarlue