You were gossiping with Domelevo – Adom-Otchere chastises CSOs

Paul Adom-Otchere, the host of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, has alleged that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country were going about gossiping with Daniel Domelevo, the immediate past Auditor-General who was forced to retire by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

According to Adom-Otchere, the leaders of these CSOs always went to the office of Daniel Yao Domelevo at 5 PM every evening to gossip about some ministers or government appointees the then Auditor-General had telephoned but did not respond.

“This gossiping and whispering that they used to do; by the close of [the] day, they all gather in Domelevo’s office and he is telling them that he called the Finance ooo; he didn’t even pick the call, that’s rubbish!” Paul Adom-Otchere alleged on the Editorial segment of his show on Thursday, March 11.

“That’s gossiping, that’s hearsay…whispering about and then documents are done by Domelevo and it ends up in the media, and Investigative Journalists have it and they are publishing. That’s gossiping,” Adom-Otchere alleged. “Where is the single corruption Domelevo found against the government? He should publish.”

He went on: “They are always there at 5 PM gossiping, whispering…you can always calculate, they come there, they are on the phone talking, whispering, gossiping about ministers. Is the Auditor-General’s work gossip work?”

Adom-Otchere then went on to suggest that he was opposed to the appointment of Domelevo because President Mahama who appointed him in December 2016 was just about exiting office after he had lost the presidential election.

“Why did President Mahama exercise an authority whose spirit had been withdrawn from him?” Adom-Otchere asked, suggesting that Domelevo’s appointment by President Mahama was too close to January 2017, the end of Mahama’s tenure, hence making the appointment unsound.

Adom-Otchere suggested further to justify the forced termination of Domelevo’s appointment because “sometimes civil societies stage a coup d’état”, adding, “…because you (CSOs) went to his office and he told you that his office [had] been locked and the padlock changed? But he is on leave; if you are on leave what are you going to do there?”

Adom-Otchere then chided the CSOs for going quiet when Domelevo was asked to pay certain monies when the latter was being investigated.

“Is that how we want to build our society? The chickens will come home to roost one day,” Adom-Otchere warned.

Paul Adom-Otchere further claimed that during the election campaign season of 2020, Daniel Yao Domelevo’s issue and that of now-departed Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu were being pushed by the CSOs to damage the electoral fortunes of the incumbent.

“You pushed Domelevo too much; you pushed Martin Amidu too much; you go to the election of December 7, the Ghanaian people retained Akufo-Addo with a heavy mandate. You haven’t noticed? You think the Ghanaian people are interested in gossip, no!” he said.

“People want politicians who can deliver, they don’t want gossip and whisperings, sitting in Christ The King,” Adom-Otchere said, referencing the church where Domelevo celebrated his end of tenure after being sacked by President Akufo-Addo.

Finally, Adom-Otchere averred that Daniel Yao Domelevo was not always right in his decisions; that the Akufo-Addo administration has the power to ask him to proceed on leave and if the CSOs disagree, they can always challenge the President’s constitutional mandate in court.