16 billion Cedis bribery to Journalist

Even before the Special Audit Report of the Ministry of Information makes its way to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, it appears the contents are too hot to be kept under wraps.

The Enquirer which claims to have a final report of the audit has continued to leak its contents.

Since its last expose, the Minister of Information for the period of the audit; Mr. Stephen Asamoah Boateng has confirmed the audit but has indicated that he wants more time to respond to some of the questions especially the ones requiring of him to name the membership of what the auditors describe as strange groups unknown to the Ghana Civil Service. The groups which the Enquirer refers to as guard-dog groups have names such as: BLOW, PRIM, FIRST RESPONSE, and the EDITOR'S FORUM who the auditors say are the beneficiaries of the 16 billion Cedis.

In what appeared to be the “clash of the titans” on radio Gold's breakfast show this morning, two senior journalists- Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini and Malik Kweku Baako of the Daily Graphic and New Crusading Guide respectfully, clashed over who the beneficiaries of the 16 billion Cedis largesse are.

In the clash, Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini who invented the Coffee Shop nomenclature to describe a certain group of journalists perceived to be aligned to the NPP and which Malik Kweku Baako has since publicly professed to be a member insisted that he was grateful to Allah that the chicken has finally come home to roost. He argued that he has always suspected that the Mafia was given fat payments at state expense and at the expense of the poor tax payer. Alhaji Fuseini further argued that he knows “the Crusading Guide, Mr. Malik Kweku Baako's paper doesn't even circulate 1000 copies yet look at the obscene and opulent lifestyle he flaunts in our faces .” Alhaji Fuseini revealed that he is aware Mr. Malik Kweku Baako had a mansion and

an expensive four wheel drive just like most of his colleagues in the Coffee Shop Mafia and that “in any serious country the IRS and institutions of state would have questioned Kweku Baako by now.”

Responding to his fellow Muslim, Mr. Baako said he can't wait to have the said names published and that he is “irritated that the names have so much delayed leading to unwarranted suspicion of journalists.” He indicated that he is ready for any investigation into the source of his wealth and said information about his house “isn't new and that many NDC sympathizers including some ministers know my house.” Mr. Baako further recounted the travelling history of some members of the Mafia with ex-president Kufuor. He said throughout all the eight years, he travelled 3 times with President Kufuor, Ogbarmey Tetteh and Kwame Sefa Kayi 2 times each. The two senior journalists also argued about the originator of what has become a cruel and fabricated allegation some nine years ago against Mr. Kwesi Pratt that the latter had been bribed with $125,000.00. Though Mr.

Kweku Baako insisted that the Mafia didn't originate it and that he condemned it at the time, Alhaji Fuseini contended that the Mafia hatched the plot and got their fellow member Alhaji Haruna Atta of the then Accra Daily Mail to break the story in his paper. Alhaji Fuseini said that “at the time I singlehandedly took on the Coffee Shop Mafia on Good Evening Ghana.” The two senior journalists in a heated debate, took turns to accuse each other of stories they had planted in time past which were not necessarily true and whose motives might not have been genuine.

The 16 billion Cedis according to the audit was taken from the TOR Debt Recovery Levy. Raymond Archer, Editor of the Enquirer who was interviewed earlier, gave an indication of who to expect on the yet to be published list of journalistic beneficiaries.

Ebenezer Ato Sam (a.k.a Baby Ansabah), Editor of the New Punch, whose recent rise to fame was on the back of confessions, also said in an earlier interview on the same programme that he feels vindicated when he alleged during his confessions that he had been left out of huge largesse doled out to journalists in the Kufuor era.

Source: Ghananewslink.com