Gabby questions Attivor’s resignation

A member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has questioned the rationale behind the resignation of the Transport Minister, Mrs Dzifa Attivor.

“Dzifa Attivor didn't resign over $23.5m Kumasi Airport runway upgrade, $100m Tamale Airport upgrade & all the costly flyovers. Why now, JM?” Gabby asked in a tweet.

Mrs Attivor resigned voluntarily over a GHS3.6 million bus branding scandal.

She tendered her resignation on Tuesday December 22, 2015.

She conveyed her resignation to the President through the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah.

Her personal assistant Egypt Kudoto told the media on Wednesday December 23, 2015 that Mrs Attivor resigned upon sober reflection.

Mr Kudoto said Mrs Attivor’s resignation was not an admission of guilt on her part as far as the inflation of the contract for the branding of 116 intra-city buses for the Bus Rapid Transit is concerned.

Chief of Staff Julius Debrah asked the Attorney General to stop the contract and review it. Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong submitted her report to the presidency on Wednesday.

The Minority in Parliament and the opposition New Patriotic Party, as well as anti-graft agencies, raised eyebrows over the budget for the branding of the buses with the portraits of all three former presidents of the fourth republic as well as that of the current President.

Meanwhile the Chief of Staff has directed the Attorney General to retrieve an amount of GHC1.9 million from Smarttys Productions, the firm contracted to do the branding.