Minority Leader, Alban Bagbin has said that he stands by his story that the contract for the renovation of the Castle, the seat of the Presidency was awarded to a company in which the Chief of Staff, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey has an interest.
He said he has enough facts to support his allegation. “I have the information available and I am prepared to prove my point,” he said. Bagbin however explained that the GNA story did not say exactly what he said adding he spoke in his local dialect. He says as a lawyer, he never mentioned that the company was unregistered as alleged by the Ghana News Agency, which first reported the story.
On whether he intends taking the Chief of Staff to court on the issue, he replied in the negative. “ I don’t intend to take them to court. I just want to make sure that they are transparent in all their dealings. As the Minority Leader, it’s my duty to ensure that things are done in a transparent manner and that is exactly what I’m doing.”
Bagbin said he is prepared to defend himself if the Chief of Staff decides to sue him in court. “I’m prepared to defend myself if I am sent to court and I still stand by my story.” He announced that the Chief of Staff has written to him concerning the issue adding that he will reply him based on the information he has. The Minority Leader however refused to make public information available to him saying he will use it to defend himself in court.
The controversy surrounding the award of contracts for the renovation of the Castle took another turn when the Chief of Staff filed a 100 million cedi suit against the Daily Graphic for publishing the story without getting his side of the story.
The Daily Graphic has however explained that it carried the story, which was attributed to the Minority Leader, because it had it from a credible source, which is the Ghana News Agency (GNA). It has on the basis of this refused to apologize to the Minister but published the apology rendered by the GNA.
Jake has however noted that he filed the suit against the Daily Graphic because the paper failed to carry its rejoinder when the GNA used the rejoinder. Meanwhile the Ghana Journalists Association and the other relevant bodies are working hard to resolve the issue amicably.
In a related development, Alban Bagbin MP Nadowli North has served notice that the Minority in Parliament will not rest the issue of the contract for the renovation of the Castle and the controversial Sahara issue but will pursue them on the floor of the House when sitting resumes next week.
According to Bagbin, the President's answer to the question on the Sahara issue was disappointing and unfortunate. He noted that the President's commitment to "zero tolerance" is a commitment of the entire nation and therefore that of the Minority. The Minority therefore with the strong desire to see the nation move forward and put the government on its toes, will continue to provide constructive criticisms with the aim of ensuring that the government keeps its words, remain transparent and accountable to the people.
Media reports have it that top members of the ruling NPP have been given the contract of lifting oil from Nigeria to the country. When quizzed on the matter at a recent press conference held on his 100 days in office, President Kufuor said that his primary aim of going to Nigeria was to secure oil for Ghana and he has done exactly that. The lifting of the oil to Ghana, the President said is a secondary matter to him and so would not be able to comment on which personalities are involved in that.
The Minority thinks that the stand of the President on the matter is rather unfortunate in view of his articulated "zero tolerance for corruption". Bagbin therefore said in an interview on an Accra radio station (JOY FM) that his side of the House will vigorous pursues the matter in order to get to the bottom of it.
