Ford gift: Impeachment needless - Appiah-Ofori

Anti-corruption crusader P.C. Appiah-Ofori has described as needless, a move by the Minority in Parliament to impeach President John Mahama in connection with a Ford Expedition gist he received from Burkinabe contractor Djibril Kanazoe.

The Minority in parliament will on Thursday move a motion for a probe into circumstances that surrounded the gifting of the SUV to Mr Mahama by Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe.

The opposition MPs filed the motion after getting over 100 signatures of their members to compel the Speaker of the house to summon the house from recess. Parliament was originally expected to resume sitting in late September.

The investigation is meant to be a precursor to Mr Mahama’s impeachment.

However, Mr Appiah-Ofori, an ex-legislator for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa told Chief Jerry Forson on Accra100.5FM’s breakfast show Ghana Yensom that once the President did not register the car in his name but rather added it to the pool of cars at the presidency, he cannot be said to have corrupted himself for which impeachment procedures should be initiated against him.

“What wrong has he [Mahama] done? If he received the car on behalf of Ghana then the impeachment is needless. It would have been justified if Mr Mahama had received the car for himself,” Mr Appiah-Ofori stressed.

Meanwhile, Deputy Majority Leader Alfred Agbesi has said some technicalities will work against the Minority’s impeachment move. “In the first place, when the motion is heard, there can be technicalities to see whether the motion is even proper before the house, whether technically it can be heard, and then we will proceed to see whether the motion can be moved. If it is moved, then we will need the required number to pass it and, therefore, the impeachment process can begin,” he stated in an interview with Class News.

In a separate interview on Accra100.5FM on Monday August 29, Mr Agbesi said the majority would scupper the impeachment process in “two hours”.

However, minority MP for Kade, Asamoah Ofosu, said the Minority’s main aim for filing the motion is not to impeach the president.

“If the president receives a gift which was intended to be gifted to the state, why was it registered? Why did you pay tax [when] you received a gift and passed it on to the state...? If it is a new car, why was it registered as a second-hand car? So, there are several controversies…we want a committee to investigate. It is not to impeach the president; it is only when after the investigations, there is a cause for his impeachment then we will proceed, but it is not intended to impeach the president,” he stated.