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Business News of Friday, 25 May 2012

Source: The Informer

We’ve Been Buying Dollars To Create Artificial Shortage

............... To Weaken The Cedi”

NPP MP Reveals & Says Gov’t Must Sit Up

Intelligence Desk Report

“Whatever The Sun Fails To Reveal; They Say, The Earth Will Throw Out”.

It is based on the above Yoruba proverb, that The Informer strongly holds the view that Akufo-Addo and his opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) will have the greatest shock of their lives come December 07, 2012, when Ghana goes to the polls.

In their extreme anxiety to recapture power at “all cost”, the NPP Presidential Candidate and his followers have engaged in all sorts of vile propaganda against President John Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) government; and when they fail, they decide to declare war.

The latest of ploys embarked upon as a result of the party’s political desperation to cause disaffection for the Mills/Mahama administration, is its strategy to create artificial shortage of the dollar so as to weaken the cedi, an NPP MP from one of the constituencies in the Eastern Region has revealed. Speaking to The Informer on strict condition of anonymity for fear of victimization, the MP hinted that; considering how creditably the NDC government has performed in getting back the economy on track; with the unprecedented increase in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to over 13%, and many other successes chalked with regards to its economic gains in this short period, irrespective of the shamble state of economy it inherited from us (NPP), nothing could change the minds of Ghanaians than to embark on the above plan. “Seeing the economic gains of the NDC government and the threat these pose to our electoral fortunes on December 07, since all propaganda against it has failed, a team, of which I’m a member, was put in place by the party to strategized and to ensure that we erode this success story of the government “, he added.

“Since there were no way we could challenge the NDC in this year’s campaign, particularly, considering the numerous developments projects that they have undertaken across the breadth and length of the country, we decided to buy the dollar from the system, so as to create artificial shortage to devalue the cedi, in order to cause economic panic in the system”, the MP stated further. “In fact, given that we have no clue as to how to match up the NDC as far as the campaign towards the December polls is concerned, and as a result of its records, our ultimate aim was to put government under pressure and cause disaffection to it, as the exchange rate, with regards to the dollar, continues to affect importation which has the direct consequences of increasing the cost of living in the country”, the source pointed.

“Anytime the Bank of Ghana (BoG) releases dollar into the system, we buy a chunk of it to create artificial shortage with the aim of weakening the cedi”, he reveals, saying, until government adopts a better strategy to arrest the continuous fall of the cedi, prices of commodities will increase as a result of the high cost of importation.

Asked why he has decided to reveal what for months has worked very well to their advantage, he replied that as a businessman he is also being affected anytime he imports goods into the country, and thinks his revelation will enable government find an antidote to the canker.

“My brother, what is good for goose is good for the gander; and I can’t continue to support evil whiles I suffer. In fact, if this wickedness is what will bring us back to power, then God forbid”, he screams.

“It is our party’s good campaign message that will propel our electoral fortunes and not such evil”, he added and says, he has already withdrawn all those that he has recruited for the exercise since he cannot allow Ghanaians to suffer in the name of politics and because someone wants to become President at “all cost”, he concludes.

However, further investigations conducted by The Informer, has it that, NPP infiltrated many vibrant sectors of the economy including GHACEM, where they can create problem for the government in furtherance of their political agenda. It would be recalled that similar situation happened (we mean the continuous fall of the cedi) in the round up to the 2000 general elections, when cost of living went up and Ghanaians decided to vote the NDC government then under Rawlings out of power.

In addition, in their craze to come to power, the NPP resorts to all manner of political gimmicks to the extent of littering the streets of Ghana with dead bodies, particularly women, whose identities till date have been difficult to prove.

We will update readers about the NPP machinations at GHACEM that has led to the astronomical increase in the price of cement in the country in recent time.