John Mahama’s Advisers Misleading Him – Oppong Nkrumah

A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said that former President John Mahama’s advisers have misled him by giving distorted and insufficient facts for him to jump into the ongoing National Digital Property Addressing System (NDPAS) debate.

He said, Mr Mahama commented on the issue without understanding the specific details of the Ghana Post GPS recently launched by government.

Former President Mahama last Sunday while addressing National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters in Cape Coast at a unity walk described the National Digital Property Addressing System (NDPAS) as “419” [fraudulent].

According to him, the addressing system government was touting as an achievement was already easily and freely accessible on smart phones and described it as an embarrassment to the president.

“How can you launch a Google GPS system that is freely available on our mobile phone and say it is a national addressing system. It is such a pity. Why will you embarrass the president so much? You go and take a whole president to bring him to come and launch a system that is 419.”

He further stated that the whole deal reeked of corruption and called on President Akufo-Addo to prove that he is serious about fighting corruption by ensuring that persons behind the addressing system contract are held accountable.

Citing an example during his tenure as president, he said : “When we talk about accountability, this is where the president should show that he is serious about corruption. Somebody must account for 15 million giving away free of charge. When I was in office, there was a bus branding incident, GH¢3.6m, a minister of state resigned because of GH¢3.6m.”

Reacting to the former presidents claims on Accra-based Joy FM’s news analysis programme Newsfile, Mr Oppong Nkrumah expressed surprise why Mr Mahama would peddle factually inaccurate information and engage in speculation.

On the contrary, he (Oppong Nkrumah) had expected the former president to furnish himself with the full facts before making any comments.

“He quoted wrong figures… he even got some of the foundational issues wrong,” Mr Nkrumah added.

According to him, Mr Mahama has every right to criticize the government, however the former president was doing exactly what he had previously criticized people for.

He said during Mahama’s tenure as president, he had called on citizens to rally behind government actions… “He kept consistently complaining that people have a habit of pouring water on anything he was trying to do without any specifics”

Touching on the fraud allegations made by Mr Mahama, he said his government mounted a strong defense for the bus branding scandal and believes that the former president is better of not wading into such territories.

“If you pay attention to some of the things he has been saying you will notice a lot of double standards … between the things that he preached when he was president and the things that he is talking about today,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah added.

Source: Graphic