Immediate past National Democratic Congress (NDC), Member of Parliament for Adentan Constituency, Kojo Adu-Asare has described as immoral the purchase of a state bungalow by New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.
He said such conduct by politicians “make Ghanaians resent us the more because they think we are all the same”. Mr Adu-Asare was speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Thursday.
The No.2 Mungo Street state bungalow at Ridge in Accra was the subject of a legal tussle after two NDC members, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, challenged the sale of the bungalow.
The two, now Deputy Education and Communications Minister respectively dragged the NPP chairman to court, accusing him of conflict of interest, corruption and abuse of office.
But the Supreme Court dismissed the case on the grounds that the plaintiffs failed to prove their allegations of abuse of office, corruption and conflict of interest against the respondent.
An Accra High Court later ordered government to hand over the keys to the bungalow to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey by the end of November, following the filing of an application demanding possession of the property.
In compliance to the decision of the court, government on Thursday, October 31, 2013, order the occupant, Nii Lante Vanderpuye to vacate the premises and handover the keys to the Public Works Department.
But some irate NDC youth stormed the premises and vowed to prevent to government from handing over the keys to the property. The bungalow is now under lock and key amidst tight security presence.
On Ekosii Sen however, Adu-Asare minced no words describing Jake’s action as shameful.
According to him, the NPP chairman, given his pedigree in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, should have known his attempt to buy a state property was inappropriate.
Adu-Asare bemoaned how some politicians only come to power to share state resources to the detriment of the people they came to serve.
The former Adentan MP called on government to as a matter of urgency to amend the law, which allows government officials to buy their duty post when leaving office.
He blamed the situation for the lack of accommodation for the current ministers and their deputies, public as well as civil servants.
Adu-Asare warned that if nothing was done about the law, posterity would never forgive the current leadership.
On the contrary, NPP MP for Kpandai, Mathew Nyidam stated unequivocally that Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey could not be blamed for the housing deficit in government.
He said finding accommodation for government appointees is a challenge and “we must find ways of dealing with it”.
The Kpandai MP noted that morality does not play a role in a purely legal case in which the NPP chairman won.
Mathew Nyidam urged the governing NDC to quit the “cheap politics” and focus on the bread and butter issues confronting Ghanaians.
