General News of Tuesday, 29 August 2017

Source: peacefmonline.com

NPP using media allies to demonize SSNIT officials – Agbenyo

Fred Agbenyo, Deputy Communications Director, NDC Fred Agbenyo, Deputy Communications Director, NDC

Deputy Communications Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Fred Agbenyo says the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is on a mission to destroy some persons at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

Some SSNIT personnel are under investigation by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) over their involvement in the $72 million SSNIT software scandal.

About 15 witnesses have been subpoenaed by EOCO as part of the ongoing investigations into the award of the 72 million dollar contract.

Addressing the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Fred Agbenyo smelled political play regarding the scandal.

According to him, the Akufo-Addo government is behind the leak of information regarding the SSNIT scandal in the media and the ruling party's aim is to "muddy the entire environment, to create confusion for everyone" so that by the time the investigations are over "people would have already demonized, criminalized and hanged some people.”

Fred Agbenyo noted that the SSNIT scandal report is a deliberate attempt by the government "to get their allies in the media, then they will highlight and sustain it for everybody to join in . . . These things are done consciously. Let’s get media houses to carry it every day so as to destroy people. It’s consciously done. That is all we’re doing. I don’t think the effort is that we want to get to the bottom of it and fight the issue. That’s not what we’re doing. It’s the politics as usual."

He wondered how the issue was exposed to the media when an investigative body had already taken the issue up and probing to ascertain the truth.

To him, the NPP desires to just dent the reputation of the SSNIT officials.

The NPP, he stressed, is neither “seeking SSNIT welfare” nor "seeking the tax payer’s money. It’s politics that we’re doing at this point. We’re just doing partisan politics at this point just to criminalize and demonize people. That is what we’re doing now and people are behind it, stoking the fire . . . ”