Like a dog which returns to its own vomit, the opposition
NPP over the weekend tried to return to the very machinations it adopted(
borrowing buses) to cripple the Metro Mass Transit Company, saddling it with a
debt of 5 billion! And as usual, when
the management of the MMT will not play ball, they went running to their
friends in the media, crying wolf.
As expected, what they told the press was a pack of lies. In
an interview with Joy FM, the MP for Suame, Hon. Mathew Opoku Prempeh claimed
that the Managing Director of the MMT, Mr. Maxwell Awuku has decided to
sabotage the NPP's interdenominational prayer session scheduled to take place
in Takoradi by ordering the Western Regional Manager of the company to refund
money they had paid for 20 buses to convey their supporters to the event
ground.
He also claimed that Mr. Awuku had in radio interviews said
the NPP cannot expect support from state institutions when they go about
insulting the President. And as if Former President Kufuor formed the MMT with
his own money, Hon. Mathew Opoku Prempeh said he wished to remind the Managing
Director of the MMT that it was during Kufuor's time that the MMT was formed.
The MP said he would personally make the development an
albatross on the neck of president Mills if the President fails to sanction Mr.
Awuku.
But, when contacted on the issue, Mr. Maxwel Awuku explained
that the NPP paid for the services of twelve buses from the MMT. When it was
time for them to collect the buses, they asked that they be given three
additional ones for which they will pay later. Mr. Awuku said since the policy
of the MMT since he assumed office was not to give the company's buses out on
credit, the NPP was told they could only take the twelve they had paid for. He
therefore expressed surprise at the lies the opposition party had resorted to
in the media.
Explaining further, he said when the Mills Administration
took over the running of the affairs of the state, it discovered that the MMT
under Kufuor had accumulated a debt of ¢5billion through political patronage
and giving buses out on credit. A decision was therefore taken not to give MMT
buses out on credit again hence the refusal to give three buses out to the NPP
on credit.
Citifmonline ran the headline “NPP fingers MMT boss in
sabotage against prayer session” after the lies from not only Mathew Opoku
Prempeh but also Perry Okudzeto, the party's Deputy Communication Director
while myjoyonline had the headline Let Mills act on MMT boss' misconduct.
Mr. Awuku told the Daily
Post later that the three extra buses have been given to the NPP after they
paid for it. He said the fact that the MMT is not a government enterprise does
not mean that it should not be operated to make profit for the state, adding
that the policy of not giving buses out on credit will be adhered to, to the
latter.