You are here: HomeNewsRegional2020 06 05Article 971545

Politics of Friday, 5 June 2020

Source: 3news.com

Nobody is afraid of your jail threats – Sampson Ahi fires back at Atta Akyea

Deputy Minister of Works and Housing in the Mahama administration, Sampson Ahi Deputy Minister of Works and Housing in the Mahama administration, Sampson Ahi

Deputy Minister of Works and Housing in the Mahama administration, Sampson Ahi says there was nothing untoward done in the execution of the agreement of the Saglemi Housing Project.

According to him, everything was ongoing as planned until the Mahama-led government lost the elections.

Mr Ahi’s claims come in the wake of pronouncements by the Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, that some former government officials could find themselves facing the law courts after being indicted in an audit report.

“We are working. Let me tell you what [President Nana Addo Dankwa] Akufo-Addo won’t do. He won’t do witch-hunt. We are not going to go into that kind of cheap politics,” he promised while speaking to journalist on the sidelines of parliamentary sitting on Thursday, adding that “at the appropriate time those people who are involved in this racket will be invited to come and answer”.

The Abuakwa South Member of Parliament (MP) singled out former Minister Collins Dauda as acting ultra vires as stated in the report after he tinkered with documents on the agreement.

But speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues on Thursday, Mr Ahi said the Minister’s threat should be treated with the contempt it deserves.

According to him, even the audit report that the minister made reference to has not been finalized.

The Bodi Constituency MP explained that the 5,000-housing unit agreement was expected to be executed in phases.

The first phase was to see 1,502 units completed.

Mr Ahi indicated that 1,038 had been completed before the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government left office and it was left with the extension of water and electricity to the area.

“The Minister [of Works and Housing] said in 2018 that they were ready to take some [former] ministers to court, we are in 2020. That threat, that kind of behaving as if people are afraid of what he is doing, nobody is afraid.”

He said he is not scared and will honour any invitation extended to him in probing the matter, as requested by the Speaker.

For him, he said the records are there to show that there was no misappropriation whatsoever as being alleged by Mr Atta Akyea.