OccupyGhana sues Oteng-Adjei for keeping state car

A former Energy Minister Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei has been dragged to court for keeping a state vehicle while he was out of office.

Pressure group OccupyGhana is leading the campaign to pray the court to force the beleaguered ex-Environment Minister to cough up about Gh¢383,000 to the state for the 222 days that he kept the luxury vehicle meant for rural electrification project.

According to the suit filed on March 12 at an Accra Fast Track High Court, the group is demanding $500 each day that Dr Oteng-Adjei kept the vehicle.

He returned the vehicle on February 24 after the minority led by MP for Adansi Asokwa KT Hammond raised the red flag.

Dr Oteng-Adjei alleged the opposition MP has “a special agenda” to soil his image. However, he said the way he has led his “life in this country God will protect” him.

According to him, he was still keeping the flashy Lexus vehicle because when he moved from the Energy Ministry to the Ministry of Environment and Science “their financial situation was a bit difficult” so he worked out with his previous ministry to keep the car “so that we don’t spend money to go and buy another car.”

A whopping $1,745,159 (Ghc5,584,508) at current exchange rate of the $350 million contract for the rural electrification project was spent on 38 luxury vehicles by the then Ministry of Energy (MoE) under Dr Oteng-Adjei.

However, there was no budgetary allocation for the purchases of the vehicles per the Auditor-General’s report. They were bought with money meant for extending electricity to 1,200 communities under the US Exim Bank loan between 2010 and 2012.