Even Prempeh College students out-number PPP supporters - Yamin

Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Joseph Yamin, has taken a swipe at the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), asking them to rather concentrate on increasing their numbers than chancing on issues to popularize itself.

His comment is in responds to the PPP’s call on President Mahama to make the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) report public.

The PPP at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, addressed by its National Chairman, Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond, said the party is suspecting a deliberate attempt by government to cover up the alleged acts of corruption at GYEEDA.

According to the PPP, the revelation from the report is “disturbing hence the party is compelled to suspect that the programme was set up to divert state funds into individual pockets to fund the political campaign of the NDC and perpetuate the corruption cycle".

The party said it was joining the call on the president to make the report public without delay.

The PPP also appealed to the president to punish persons cited in the report to have allegedly misappropriated public funds.

“The results of all these instances were a massive waste of the public’s scarce resources, open collusion to steal," the PPP said.

The party also kicked against the appointment of the Mr. P.V. Obeng’s committee to review the GYEEDA report and advice the president, saying it is nothing but a cover-up engineered by the presidency.

But speaking on Montie FM’s Adekye Mu Nsem on Friday, the Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, Joseph Yamin, disagreed with the PPP’s stance, saying the president would need enough time to go through the over a-hundred-page report and take the appropriate steps.

He was of the view that political parties like the PPP do not have the audacity to comment on such critical issues, adding that “they are just chancing on the issue to be noticed’’.

"What percentage of votes did they get in the last elections. How many are they? Even the number of students at Prempeh College is more than the supporters of PPP," he said.

He wondered what the PPP would have done if the president had refused to set up a committee to look into the GYEEDA issue when reports about corrupt activities at the place started making the rounds.

"I don’t see why a party like the PPP would comment on the GYEEDA report now. Are they the people who told us to set up the committee?” he quizzed.