We were deceived into thinking Akufo-Addo is incorruptible - Vitus Azeem

Vitus Azeem says transparency and accountability, the tools needed in the fight against corruption are missing in the Akufo-Addo administration.

The former Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative said Ghanaians were deceived into thinking that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo winning the 2016 presidential elections will make everything better in the nation but the case today is different.

According to him, “we were deceived into thinking that he is incorruptible, he will not entertain corruption and that when he comes things are going to be better than before but as I’ve told you things are worse than before”.

In the lead up to the 2016 elections, then-candidate Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) constantly accused then-president Mahama's government of being corrupt, pledging to wage a fierce war against the menace.

But expressing his disappointment in the president’s posture towards allegations of corruption against some of his appointees, Vitus Azeem said Akufo-Addo has failed.

“Everyday you just take the newspapers; you listen to radio and one person or the other and in some cases, he himself comes out to say the person has done nothing wrong. You wouldn’t even wait for the investigating bodies to investigate, you come out and say the person has done nothing wrong and you clear him,” he said.

He further spoke against the president’s failure to make the PDS scandal and Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence reports public.

“The Ayawaso thing, the president told us that he’s not compelled to release the report but if you are sending a bill to parliament on that don’t you think parliamentarians need to know what is in that report because it will help them in the debate.

Why did you spend money for a committee of three eminent Ghanaians to sit down and investigate the matter? At least, if you don’t want to give us the detailed report come out with your white paper so that yes this was what was found… transparency and accountability are the tools for fighting corruption and they don’t exist.”

Vitus Azeem was speaking to GhanaWeb’s Laud Adu Asare in an interview.