The former Member of Parliament for Chiana–Paga Constituency, Abuga Pele still cannot fathom why he was prosecuted by the state.
The former NDC MP was sentenced to six-year imprisonment by an Accra High Court in 2018, for causing financial loss to the state while he was the National Coordinator of the defunct Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency [GYEEDA].
He was said to have acted in a manner that resulted in the loss of GH¢4.1 million by the government, after businessman Phillip Akpeena Assibit had made false claims that he had secured a $65-million World Bank funding for the creation of one million jobs for the youth.
Abuga Pele was found guilty on two counts of abetment of fraud and five counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state and received six years for abetment of fraud and four years for willfully causing financial loss to the state, both to be served concurrently.
But speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper Show with Mark Smith, Abuga Pele believes he did nothing wrong to merit the treatment he went through.
“The memo was not crafted by me; it was crafted by my finance officer who was employed by the ministry because they say he is qualified. All the senior officers I was dumped on them, I didn’t recruit them. So why would I be holding in doubt the work they do and submit to me.”
“So I would look through if it sounds reasonable am not a finance man even though I was a tax man but it is not enough. The Finance Officer wrote the memo and said it was okay. I minuted for your attention and he took it to the ministry. He read through, gave it to his Chief Director, gave it to his Auditor, they approved and he said pay him; we paid. So am still to come to terms with why I was prosecuted.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Osuman Kaapore Tahiru|Ghana
