General News of Thursday, 18 October 2012

Source: The Daily Searchlight

Ras Mubarak 'steals' government car

In what looks like the tip of the iceberg in a coordinated effort at ripping off Ghanaians, one of the parliamentary aspirants of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been allocated a state-owned vehicle with which he is actively campaigning on the blind side of Ghanaians.

He is seeking to come into public office, but even before he gets the opportunity, he has started dishing his fingers into state-property seriously enjoying the largesse of Ghanaians.

On top of the vehicle, this newspaper has learned that he is also drawing state fuel for his campaign rounds.

The gentleman who is in the groove is not other than Mr. Ras Mubarak, one of the most astute youthful politicians in the NDC, who also happens to be the party's parliamentary candidate for the Ablekuma North Constituency.

Mr. Ras Mubarak has been given a vehicle belonging to the Ministry of Finance, a Nissan MP 300 with registration number GT 6980-10 for his campaign, on which he has gleefully plastered his posters and that of President John Dramani Mahama, who is the Presidential Candidate of the NDC.

According to our very credible information, the vehicle was allocated to him by Deputy Finance Minister, Mr. Seth Tekper for his campaign.

Our checks at the Finance Ministry shows clearly that the vehicle is a state property and what many people do not understand is why a state car should be given to someone who is only vying to come into political office and is not there yet.

When this paper contacted the aspiring Member of Parliament to ascertain the truth in the said matter he pleaded that he knew that this information will pop out and knows very well that his detractors are behind all this to score political capital out of this.

“My brother as far as I am concerned it is some people who wish us ill who will put out this kind of stories to discredit me. You are young man and I am a young man. We have a whole future ahead of us and can we continue to do this to ourselves to help someone's political ambition? It is not true but what I wanted to tell you is that the future is brighter for both us”.

Some people have argued that it is not fair for politicians to allocate government vehicles to party people for their campaigns.

It will be recall that during the NPP government these same NDC members lambasted the Kufuor administration that they are using government vehicles for their campaign.

This paper made attempts to get the Deputy Finance Minster on the line but calls to his phone remained unanswered.