Amidu Still Hounding NDC With Corruption Claims – Ayine

The Bolgatanga East MP, Dr. Dominic Ayine, believes the Special Prosecutor is still exhibiting bias against elements of the National Democratic Congress.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Dr. Ayine briefly responded to Mr. Amidu reiterating earlier suggestions that some leading NDC MPs tried to cover up the double salary scandal.

The Special Prosecutor, in an exclusive interview with Citi News‘  Umaru Sanda, maintained that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), must probe the allegations without any distractions.

“The ordinary man going to jail is a human being like a Ghanaian. I don’t like this whole idea about political elite. Honourables you are supposed to be, and then you are just fleecing the country. Indeed, that is an offence of abuse of office for private gain,” Mr. Amidu stressed.

But Dr Ayine noted that this was the latest of many unsubstantiated allegations Mr. Amidu has fired the way of the NDC.

“He has never investigated the Mahama administration yet he keeps piling one allegation upon the other, that there was massive corruption in the Mahama administration,” Dr. Ayine stated.

He intimated further that he expected Mr. Amidu to exhibit more neutrality given the position he now occupies.

“… That I think is unfortunate for a man who is supposed to be impartial and neutral in investigating crimes. I am very disappointed that he will still be making those type of statements at this stage of his career as a prosecutor.”

Scandal not a police matter

Also speaking on Eyewitness News, the MP for Bawku Central, said there was no issue of criminality in the case.

He argued that it is an administrative problem because of the issues arising from the fact the salary conditions of a minister have not yet been outlined per Article 71 of the constitution.

“At that stage [of an MP becoming a minister], you would not know what your conditions of service are as an MP or as a minister because lawfully, those categorizations have not been done.”

Thus, he said payments were merely advanced pending the reconciliation of accounts.

“If you owe us, you pay us. If we owe you, we pay you, and that is what has been happening. This is an administrative matter and strictly speaking, the proper persons to have been dealing with this matter is the Auditor General and the Controller and Accountant General. The police have no hand in this matter.”

Background

The CID cited some NDC MPs who served as ministers or deputy ministers for allegedly taking double salaries.

25 of the MPs were initially asked to report to the police, but 18 of them were later asked to disregard that invitation.

But so far, about eight of them have been interrogated by the CID and are being investigated for stealing; an allegation the Minority in Parliament has rejected.

Meanwhile, there are reports in the media that the Majority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to intervene to safeguard the integrity of Parliament; a claim one of the lawyers for the indicted MPs, Victor Adawudu has denied.

Already, Parliament has announced the formation of a two-member bi-partisan committee to investigate the double salaries scandal.

Speaking to Citi News, Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, said the committee is expected to provide some clarity on the issue to put it to rest.