Ford gift brouhaha - Petitioners say it’s cover-up, Mahama welcomes ruling
THE solicitor for the President, Mr Tony Lithur, has welcomed the outcome of the investigations conducted by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) into the Ford Expedition gift to President John Mahama, which cleared the First Gentleman of any wrongdoing.
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The CHRAJ yesterday released a 78-page report on its investigation into a gift President Mahama received from a Burkinabe contractor, Oumarou Djibril Kanazoe, which became public following an investigation conducted by a journalist, Mr Manasseh Awuni Azure.
A press statement signed by Mr Lithur said while the solicitor was always confident of the President’s innocence, the report threw more light on the circumstances surrounding the subject of the complainants and demonstrated clearly to the people of Ghana that the accusations of conflict of interest made against President Mahama were wrong, without basis and unsupported by facts.
“The thoroughness of the investigations conducted by CHRAJ and the manner in which it has tackled all the issues arising from the complaints are commendable,” the statement added.
It commended CHRAJ for discharging its constitutional mandate with despatch, and expressed the hope that the clarity and completeness of its determination of all the issues would finally lay the matter to rest.
Petitioners
But two of the petitioners who triggered the investigations by the CHRAJ have dismissed the report and described it as an attempt to cover-up for the President.
Mr Ernesto Yeboah, the National Youth Organiser of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), told the Daily Graphic that the report did not absolve the President of any wrongdoing and added that the President violated the oath of office.
He stated that President Mahama violated the Gift Policy for which reason the report could not clear him of any conflict of interest situation, adding that the “CHRAJ report is a mild way of telling the President he has abused his office.”
While maintaining that the report was a “PR gimmick” for the President, the Gift Policy was to check corruption and for the President to have violated it was up to Ghanaians to judge.
Also expressing misgivings about the CHRAJ report was the Policy Advisor for the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Mr Kofi Asamoah Siaw, who said there were several unanswered questions in the report but maintained that the investigations still indicted the President.
He told the Daily Graphic that for the President to have donated the vehicle to the state for use in the presidential pool did not constitute a charity per CHRAJ’s own regulations, and explained that the Gift Policy stipulated that since a President had no superiors to whom he could donate items, he was mandated to dispose of such gifts to charity.
Against that backdrop, Mr Siaw said for President Mahama to donate the Ford Expedition to the presidential pool clearly violated the policy and asked CHRAJ to speak to that matter.
He also questioned why CHRAJ failed to mention in its report whether there were records at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) of all state vehicles that had the same status as the Ford Expedition and also the fact that the report failed to explain the kind of relationship Sheikh Ouedraogo Mohammed, the importer of the vehicle, had with the President.
Writer’s email: [email protected]
