[ 2017-05-26 ]

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

Don't beg for corrupt officials - President cautions
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has
cautioned all Ghanaians against the practice of
seeking to plead on behalf of people caught to
have engaged in acts of corruption, ostensibly to
enable them escape prosecution.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has
cautioned all Ghanaians against the practice of
seeking to plead on behalf of people caught to
have engaged in acts of corruption, ostensibly to
enable them escape prosecution.

“When people get caught up in the net, I am
imploring people not to come to me and say that
‘Oh! Nana, this man is my relative, so spare
him’. That is the problem in Ghana. You find
people going to speak to your wife with the hope
of trying to influence you. I am not going to
listen to that, because my concern is Ghana and
not one or two individuals,” he stressed.

The president stated emphatically that he would
not shield any public official found to have
engaged in acts of corruption or malfeasance, but
would ensure that the laws of the land were
applied fully, without fear or favour.

President Nana Akufo-Addo was addressing a meeting
of Ghanaian residents in Sierra Leone during a
working visit to the country, as part of the third
phase of his working visits to the ECOWAS
countries.

He urged all Ghanaians to help him in the fight
against corruption, “so that we can put that
Ghana behind us, and get a new deal for our
country.”

The president said the recent news of the arrest
of some Customs officials, responsible for the
loss of some GH¢1.2 billion in revenue to the
state, was part of the efforts his government was
making to block revenue leakages at the
country’s ports.

“That money was going not into the
government’s coffers, but into private pockets.
We have importers who evade duty because they
split the duty with Customs officials. It cannot
continue like that in Ghana,” the President
said.

He continued, “I want to assure you that, so
long as I have the opportunity, and I have breath
and power, I am going to do something about it, so
we can stop the leakages. I know that if we stop
the leakages, we will have the money to do our own
development. We are not going to be dependent on
some people coming to say they are going to give
us charity or grants. We will finance our own
development ourselves.”

Reiterating his commitment to depoliticise the
prosecution of corruption in Ghana, as
prosecutions carried out by the Attorney General
are described as “witch-hunting” by opponents,
President Akufo-Addo: “we are going to create
the Office of Special Prosecutor, who will not be
a creature of the government, but will be an
independent person who will have the power to
decide who to prosecute. So it will not be
Akufo-Addo, but it is the law that is working.”

In the next meeting of Parliament, the President
disclosed, the legislation setting up the Office
of Special Prosecutor would be laid before the
House, and “hopefully, by the second half of
this year, the office will be up and working.”

He added: “we want to turn a new page in the
history of our country. We are a rich country. I
refuse this idea that Ghana is poor. I will not
accept the language that Ghana is poor. Ghana is
not a poor country. Ghana is a rich country, and
we want to make it a rich country once again in
our time. We all need to work hard to realise the
wealth of our country.”

Source - thestatesmanonline.com

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