EC’s Opoku Amankwah not cleared – EOCO

The Economic and Organised Crime Office has dismissed claims that the Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission in charge of Corporate Services, Georgina Opoku Amankwah has been cleared of any wrongdoing following a probe into the GHc480, 000 believed to have gone missing from the EC’s Senior Staff Endowment Fund.

In a brief statement, EOCO stated that no such thing had occurred adding that reports the EC Chairperson Mrs. Charlotte Osei is manipulating EOCO is blatant falsehood.

“The attention of the authority at the EOCO has been drawn to the banner headline of the 23rd January 2018 Edition of the Daily Guide Newspaper that “EOCO Clears EC Top Officers”.

“We wish to emphatically and categorically state that no such clearance has been issued to any of the Officers of the Electoral Commission who are on leave.

“Secondly, the attribution that “EC Chairperson is said to be manipulating EOCO” is blatant falsehood and needs to be condemned. The general public is invited to disregard the said publication.”

Georgina Opoku-Amankwaah, Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Finance and Administration; Kwaku Owusu Agyei-Larbi, Chief Accountant and Joseph Kwaku Asamoah, Finance Officer, were asked to proceed on leave by the EOCO on the instructions of the EC chairperson, Charlotte Osei, over the alleged malfeasance.

Last week Ms Opoku-Amankwaah defied the ‘stay at home’ order and returned to work only for the anti-graft body to chase her out.

But the Daily Guide newspaper in its January 23, 2018, edition, reported that some documents available to it from the Attorney General’s Department suggest that the affected officers including Opoku Amankwa have been cleared of any malfeasance.

According to the newspaper, “The report, dated January 10, 2018, indicates that the focus of the EOCO investigation was on Samuel Yorke Aidoo, the then Director of Finance, as well as Ishmael Pensah, a former Chief Accountant, who no longer works with the EC.”

Daily Guide further suggested that Georgina Opoku-Amankwaah and the other directors being investigated were allegedly being hounded by EOCO on the instruction of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei.