$100K access fee 'no wrongdoing' – Akufo-Addo

Government has said there was no misconduct on the part of the Trade Ministry or any other official in relation to an alleged payment of $100,000 by expatriates in order to sit at the president’s table at a recent event.

“The facts, as reported to the president, do not disclose any wrongdoing on the part of the Minister or any government official,” Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid said in a statement Thursday, December 21.

The statement added that: “The President has therefore asked the Minister to put those facts before the Ghanaian people.”

The statement comes after the President demanded answers from his Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen concerning the issue.

The minority has strongly condemned what they said was corruption by government officials to consent to the demand for such monies at the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards (GEBA).

Meanwhile North Tongu MP Samuel Okuidzeto Ablakwa has instructed his lawyers to file a defamation suit against Deputy Trades Minister, Carlos Ahenkorah, for calling him a “thief” and a “liar”.

“I’m certain that before the close of day he will received the suit, I want to give him the opportunity to prove all of those things – he called me a thief, he said that I even stole all my way through education…” Mr Ablakwa told Accra-based Joy FM on Thursday.

Mr Ahenkorah rained insults on Mr Ablakwa in parliament’s lobby a couple of days ago, after barging into an interview session that the North Tongu MP was having with journalists on the $100,000 cash-for-seat scandal.

The confrontation almost ended up in fisticuffs.