Rachel Appoh and Victoria Hamah served in the Mahama government
One of the major scandals that rocked the John Mahama government was the US$1 million saga that had then Deputy Minister of Communications, Victoria Hamah, at the center of it.
The ‘Vicky Hamah $1 million’ saga, as it came to be known, was one of many issues that rocked the John Mahama administration and ultimately contributed to his defeat in the 2016 elections.
The saga, which was triggered by an audio recording of a conversation between Victoria Hamah and someone, had the now-former deputy minister promising to quit politics should she garner $1 million.
The recording had Victoria Hamah and the unidentified person discussing Rachel Appoh and why she was risking her appointment as a Deputy Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection by fighting her boss, even though “she could boast of 100,000 Ghana cedis or 100,000 dollars” in her personal account.
She was again heard saying: “…I told Rachel that I really understand politics...I will not quit politics until I make one million dollars. If you have money then you can control people.”
At the time, it emerged that Lawrence Quayeson, a driver and relative of Victoria Hamah, did the recording.
Quayeson, when confronted on the person who contracted him to undertake the recording, first mentioned then Deputy Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, Rachel Appoh, before changing his narrative in an interview with Joy FM.
In a Joy FM interview in November 2013, Lawrence Quayeson said he was forced by the family of Victoria Hammah to blame it on Rachel Appoh.
Eleven years after that scandal, Rachel Appoh has spoken out on the issue, declaring her innocence and providing spiritual context to the whole saga.
Speaking on Kingdom FM, the former Member of Parliament for Gomoa Central explained that contrary to the widely held view, she was neither in the car with Victoria Hamah nor was she the one at the other end of the phone conversation.
She recounted how a prophet predicted the impending saga that was about to hit her and torpedo her political career.
"During Vicky Hamah’s issue, her driver alleged that I was the one who commissioned him to record her. It was prophesied to me. A man of God told me that I was going to be the subject of news fabrication at 6 pm.
"Then the driver made those allegations on some radio stations… Two days after the driver made those allegations, he came out again to say that he was arrested and coerced by Victoria Hamah’s family to make those allegations against me and that I wasn’t the one who contracted him.
“Victoria Hamah knows that I wasn’t the one who recorded her. It happened and I have moved on from it. People keep asking me about that issue but I want to state clearly that I wasn’t the one in the car and I wasn’t the one she was talking to on the phone. I wasn’t the one who recorded her. She was talking about me to someone and unfortunately said a few things about President Mahama. I don’t know the person who did it though reports are that it is the driver,” Appoh recounted.
EK/MA
