‘Yɛgye Yɛ Sika’ demo: NPP on ‘fishing expedition’ against Ablakwa – NDC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of targeting Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa because of his record in exposing alleged corruption. The party described the NPP’s demands for accountability over the evacuation of Ghanaians from South Africa as a “fishing expedition”, arguing that the party is attempting to discredit the minister through repeated allegations.

Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story on Tuesday, November 3, following the NPP’s ‘Yɛgye Yɛ Sika’ demonstration, the National Deputy Communications Director of the NDC, Julius Kwame Anthony, said the opposition was determined to make an example of Mr Ablakwa to discourage others from challenging corruption. “In fact, I have earlier described them as a group of people who are deep-necked into corruption and see all who have fought corruption in one way or the other as enemies to their cause.

“And they are very desperate to ensure that they make an example of such people so that nobody else will set such an example, the conduct of those people in the fight against corruption under their administration ever again. The Honourable Okudzeto Ablakwa is just being targeted by the NPP. They are on a fishing expedition,” he said. The NPP staged the demonstration to demand accountability over the evacuation arrangements and called for the removal of Mr Ablakwa.

Read also: ‘Yɛgye Yɛ Sika’: NPP youth wing protests over SA evacuation expenditure, diplomatic passports Mr Anthony accused the opposition of repeatedly making allegations against the minister in the hope that some would eventually gain public acceptance. “They are on a fishing expedition. They are on a consistent mass slinging, throwing one, if it fails to throw another, with the hope that with time some of it would stick and that other people will watch it and fear that in the events that the people of this country are bedeviled with an NPP administration, they would fear going against that attitude of corruption, which characterized the previous NPP administration,” he said.

He maintained that Mr Ablakwa, during his time in opposition, relied on what he described as credible evidence when raising concerns about alleged wrongdoing under the previous NPP administration. He contrasted this with the NPP’s current demand for invoices relating to chartered flights used in the evacuation exercise, questioning why a political party should receive such documents directly from a state institution.

“I ask myself, at what point in the history of the Republic of Ghana do we have a situation where invoices of transactions of state institutions are sent to the headquarters of political parties? In this case, the NPP is demanding that we bring invoices of chartered flights to them at Asylum Down. At what point does accountability mean that?” he questioned.

He said that concerns about possible financial irregularities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be investigated through the appropriate state institutions. “If you want accountability and you want to check whether or not there are any infractions in the dealings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an audit properly conducted by the institutions of state designated to do so would bring those answers,” he said.