The Member of Parliament for Talensi Constituency, Benson Tongo Baba has chided the Ministry of Trade and Industry for allegedly using President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to raise funds at an event jointly organized by the ministry and Millennium Excellence Foundation (MEF).
“From the records that were made available, it means the president was used to raise funds” he stated.
Controversy brewed over an allegation that some expatriate business moguls during the just ended Ghana Expatriates Business Awards (GEBA) were charged $25,000 and $100,000 to enable them to sit close to the president.
President Akufo-Addo who seems to have been upset with the allegation demanded immediate answers from the Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten.
But speaking exclusively with A1radioonline.com, the Talensi Constituency legislator, BT Baba as he is popularly called stated that the president’s decision to demand answers from the ministry instead of the foundation signifies he was used unknowingly to raise funds.
“They know the source of that letter, otherwise you [president Akufo-Addo] would not ask the Ministry of Trade to respond to it; you would have asked that foundation to respond to it or the police to make sure that that person is arrested for bringing the name of the presidency into disrepute.”
President of Millennium Excellence Foundation, Ashim Morton responding to the allegations said the use of “president” in the $100,000 payment for a reserved seat was an address to him and not president Akufo-Addo.
But BT Baba believes the Ministry of Trade and Industry through a press conference organized by the organizers “only came in an attempt to camouflage the event”.
BT Baba queried “who will pay $100,000 to go and see a foundation president? What is his profile in the first place? They tried to cover it up but that covering has rather further exposed the reasons for those letters to be written”
Speaking on the recent meningitis and swine flu outbreak in some Senior High Schools in the Country, BT Baba attributed the cause of the disease to congestion in the schools due to the implementation of the Free Senior High School Policy.
“Why should it be only in the schools, it means that the schools are overcrowded conditions. Because most of the schools are enrolling more than they could have done in the past and that is also creating accommodation problem and classroom congestion”
By: Joshua Asaah|A1radioonline.com|Ghana
