Nana Akufo-Addo
-Donated To Party
When The aL-hAJJ reported that there was more to Nana Akufo-Addo’s virtual-stone-silence to his party’s corruption charge against President John Mahama in the Ford Expedition saga, some Ghanaians were those who doubted it, as they continue to tout the New Patriotic Party’s flag bearer’s claim of incorruptibility.
Only recently, founder of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), and former president, Jerry John Rawlings, was reported testifying to the integrity and credibility of Nana Akufo-Addo, virtually absolving the opposition leader of any unethical behavior.
Mr Rawlings believes it would be extremely difficult for anybody to tag the NPP presidential candidate with corruption or any related criminal act, considering his dislike for material things. "Fortunately for them, (referring to the NPP), they have a leader who is not known for messing around with material things," the former military strong man was quoted to have said.
But truth, as they say, is like a cork and cannot be suppressed eternally as it has finally emerged Nana Akufo-Addo appropriated a Toyota Land cruiser with registration number GN 8104 Y that was donated to the party (NPP) by a contractor for the 2008 elections.
Apparently, the vehicle, which was purchased from Crystal City Ltd, a popular used-cars dealer at Dzorwulu, Accra, was donated to NPP for use as campaign vehicle, but for reasons NPP insiders described as “strange”, the former Abuakwa South Member of Parliament managed to have it registered in his personal name.
The vehicle, this paper has gathered, was registered in the name of one Alex Tetevia, and later transferred to Nana Akufo-Addo.
This paper’s investigations have so far uncovered that at the time the car was gifted, Nana Akufo-Addo and his handlers “made all of us believe that the car was donated to Nana Addo and not the party and that; it was the man who donated the vehicle who registered it in Nana Addo’s name,” a party source told this paper.
According to the source “it was later that we got to know that the car was actually donated to the party and not Nana Addo as a person. We got to know about this detail when the said car was confiscated by CEPS in 2009 on account that duties paid on it was undervalued…for all along most of us thought the car was gifted to Nana Addo, but that was not the case. The car was meant to be property of the party but he somehow managed to divert it and got it registered in his name.”
This latest revelation confirms allegations by some leading members of the NPP after the party’s defeat in the 2008 elections that some valuable items and cash donated to the then governing NPP by well-wishers ended up in the homes of Nana Akufo-Addo and his cronies.
The three-time flag bearer of the NPP has remained tight-lipped since media reports suggested that he received a Toyota land cruiser gift from a wealthy contractor in aid of his 2008 campaign in the midst of accusation from his party kingpins that Ford Expedition vehicle gifted to President Mahama by a Burkinabe contractor constituted bribery.
Media reports also indicated that while so
me NPP MPs are seeking to trigger impeachment proceedings against the president in parliament for accepting the Ford donation, Nana Akufo-Addo has been reluctant in accusing President Mahama of bribery to avoid being exposed as a recent receiver of a Land Cruiser Prado vehicle which was to be given to his wife, Rebecca Akufo-Addo and other goodies from a well-known current Chief Executive of a state organization.
Last week, a senior lecturer at the department of History and Political Studies of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology threw a challenge to Nana Akufo-Addo to confirm or deny he received a Toyota land cruiser donation in 2008 and further accepted a Toyota Prado and other goodies on behalf of his wife.
According to the lecturer who pleaded anonymity, Nana Akufo-Addo’s continuous silence on the issue is creating room for people to doubt his claims that he is not corrupt and will never be corrupt, adding that the best approach to put this issue to rest is to explain to Ghanaians the circumstances under which he received the vehicle and later had it registered in his name.
“Sometimes politicians underestimate the effects of some of this negative reportage about them. If I was to advice Nana Addo, the first thing I would tell him to do is to respond to this car gift issue in order to bring a closure to it,” he stated.
But the NPP flag bearer is yet to speak to the issue even though media reports indicate that his party’s legislators have begun collecting signatures from MPs to initiate impeachment proceedings in parliament.
Nana Akufo-Addo, NPP sources told The aL-hAJJ, “risk shooting himself in the foot if he dares speak to this car gift issue because there is more to it. There are still some people in our party who are not happy with how he managed to get the car registered in his name when it was actually donated to the party. So any attempt to respond to it or try to justify could spell doom for him.”
