General News of Saturday, 26 October 2013

Source: peacefmonline

Dragging Akufo-Addo into drillship sale is useless - John Boadu

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the attempt by the ruling party to drag the 2012 presidential candidate of the opposition party, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo into the saga of the sale of a drillship belonging to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) for political equalization purposes is illogical and useless.

Nana Akufo-Addo has been called upon to explain what he knows about the sale of the drillship because he was then the Attorney General at the time of the sale.

The newly appointed head of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Kobby Acheampong, claims the former NPP Flagbearer was presented with every documentation pertaining to the drillship, and therefore stands in a better position to help unravel the mystery surrounding the sale.

But the former NPP Deputy Director of Communications appears bemused at government’s apparent determined attempt to link the one-time A-G with the transaction.

“…the issue of bringing Nana Akufo-Addo into the sale of the drillship is useless; we can do better than this but perhaps they have missed Nana and so they just want to rope him in,” John Boadu said during discussions on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ programme on Friday.

He however indicated that the Judgment Debt Commission can go ahead to invite the 2012 flagbearer if they feel he can be of help in their investigations because “this is a very serious matter which should not be played on the field of politics”.

“I will go along with anyone who will say that as the former Attorney General, he did something outside his mandate; especially knowing that he shouldn’t have taken that decision and so he should be invited; they should go ahead and invite him…but we shouldn’t jump to conclusion…we need to find a lasting solution to the problem (judgement debt conundrum) because it is still going on,” he added.

Speaking to the issue on the same platform, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Deputy Minister of Information stressed that the idea of inviting Nana Addo to help in the investigations is the right thing to do.

This is because, the former NPP leader ordered GNPC to provide documentation on the Drill Ship; and since the needed documents pertaining to the sale of the Drillship cannot be found, he (Nana) is the best person who can help fish them out.

According to him, “if someone mentions Nana Akufo-Addo, it is a legitimate course”.