Kennedy Agyapong fails to honour CID invitation

Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, yesterday failed to honour the invitation of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to give a statement on allegation of corruption he had purportedly leveled against some unnamed officials at the Flagstaff House and Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Communications Minister.

Mr Agyapong and controversial musician and satirist, Kwame Asare Obeng, also known as A-Plus, were invited to provide evidence of their corruption allegations against the two deputies to the Chief of Staff.

Information gathered at the CID headquarters indicated that even though Mr Agyapong had given some documents to the police, he would not turn up to give a written statement; but A-Plus honoured the invitation.

A-Plus reported in the company of a brother to give his statement. He left the headquarters immediately he gave out his statement.

ACP David Eklu, Director-General in-charge of Police Public Affairs, told the media that a follow-up would only commence based on the statement A-Plus had given to the police.

Mr. Kennedy Agyapong last week accused unnamed staffers at the presidency of demanding $20,000 from an unnamed investor before allowing the person to see President Akufo-Addo.

He also reportedly accused Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful of allegedly collecting monies from investors, stating that the National Identification Authority under the Ministry of Communications disregarded his bid for a contract to print NIA cards in favour of more expensive bidders.

Mr. Agyapong alleged that his colleague MP from Ablekuma Central, as well as Minister of Communications, supervised a corruption-ridden process in the award of contract to produce National Identification cards by the National Identification Authority (NIA).

Responding to the allegation, Ms Owusu-Ekuful described as ‘scurrilous’ and ‘unwarranted’ the allegation of corruption leveled against her by her colleague New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP.

She said, “They are patently false and I challenge him to come forward with evidence that corroborates his outlandish allegations.

Giving a background to the case, Ms Ursula said, “Following a comprehensive review and report by the technical and legal committees established by H.E. the Vice President in January 2017, the government determined that the agreement between the National Identification Authority (NIA) and Identity Management Systems (IMS) constituted a ‘viable and effective’ vehicle for the implementation of a modern, robust and reliable National Identification System (NIS) for Ghana. Subsequently, H.E. the President formally directed the National Identification Authority to engage with IMS to ensure efficient roll out of the NID.”

However, the controversial musician, on Saturday made several allegations of fraud and corruption against the Deputy Chiefs of Staff, Francis Asenso-Boakye and Abu Jinapor

In a Facebook post, A-Plus expressed his displeasure with the two while commending President Akufo-Addo’s achievements seven months into his tenure of office.

In the post, A-Plus described the two as corrupt but failed to list their crimes.

“…Seven months of NPP government. So far so good except appointing some very corrupt officials, including the two very…deputy chiefs of staff. It’s amazing how Nana was able to appoint two … arrogant and corrupt… You think you’ll be in power forever. Even John Mahama, I was not afraid of him then you [sic],” A-Plus said in the post.

Following the allegation, President Akufo-Addo ordered the Financial Forensic Unit of the CID to look into the matter, thus compelling the police to extend an invitation to the two NPP faithful to help investigate the matter.