Don’t use corruption fight to witch-hunt ex-government officials – Apaak

Builsa South MP Dr Clement Apaak has urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government not to use its power to persecute appointees of the former government.

His call is on the back of President Akufo-Addo’s comments that he will not shield public officials caught in corrupt practices despite pressure being mounted on him to do so and the arrest of some customs officials responsible for the loss of GHS1.2 billion in revenue to the state.

Addressing Ghanaian residents in Sierra Leone on his one-day working visit there, Nana Akufo-Addo urged all to help him in the fight against corruption.

“We are going to stop the leakages in our revenue systems in Ghana and I want to assure that as long as I have the opportunity and I have power, I’m going to do something about it. So we can stop the leakages and I know that if we stop the leakages we will have the money to do our own development. We are not going to be dependent on some people coming to say they are going to give us charity and grants and this and that. We will finance our own development.

But we all have to work together. And when people get caught in the net, I’m imploring you, I don’t want to hear: ‘Oh Nana, this is my brother.’ That is the problem in our place. People will come to your wife and plead, I’m not going to listen to that. My concern is Ghana, not one or two individuals. So I want you to help me so we can put that Ghana behind us,” Nana Akufo-Addo said.

But speaking to Class News, Dr Apaak, said the fight against corruption shouldn’t only focus on former appointees.

“While we all support the president in the fight against corruption because we were [also] fighting it – and indeed the former President has stated publicly that he supports the fight against corruption because he has described corruption as akin to mass murder – we should not use the fight against corruption as a cover-up to witch-hunt former government officials. I think it is very important to state that,” he said.

“If state institutions are perceived to be going out of their way to focus on former government officials and the government then goes public to put out information that suggests that these former government appointees or citizens may have engaged in acts of corruption without providing immediate justification and allowing due processes to take place, then I think that will be unfair and we can say that former state or government appointees are being witch-hunted.”