�Gift Is Another Way Of Bribery And Corruption� � Amoako Baah Tells Mahama

“I was very sad yesterday when I heard the news about the president’s car gift. People think I don’t like President Mahama and the NDC but that is not so. I will not support anything bad. So why should our President accept such gift after his effort to fight bribery and corruption?”  - Dr Richard Amoako Baah 

“ . . You will call it a gift, but a gift is another way of bribery and corruption” - Dr Richard Amoako Baah Head of the Department of History and Political Science of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology expressed his disappointment in President John Dramni Mahama for his car gift.

Investigative journalist, Joy News' Manasseh Azure Awuni has revealed that, President Mahama was given a brand new Ford Expedition in 2012 by the contractor who won the bid to construct the $650,000 Ghana Embassy Wall in the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou.

According to his findings, in 2014 Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee ordered the Bank of Ghana to investigate the transaction when the cost of the project came up.

But the Bank did not undertake the investigation - the contractor in question according to the investigator is the same person who also won the bid to construct the recently commissioned Dodo-Pepeso section of the Eastern Corridor Road.

Manasseh Azure Awuni who travelled to Burkina Faso to meet the contractor reports that he admitted giving the car to the president but insists it is not a bribe.

This has generated ‘hot’ discussions among political pundits and concerned citizens – some are calling for the impeachment of President Mahama ahead of the November 7 elections.

Commenting on the issue on NEAT FM’s morning show dubbed 'Ghana Montie', Dr Amoako Baah however sought to find out what motivated the president to accept the gift – “So he [Prez Mahama] accepted the car. What brand of car can’t the President afford in this world?”

“The President should have told the contractor to sell the car for charity work in his name. Can’t the state afford better cars for the president than what he received from someone the state has contracted? This is so unfortunate and a shame to the state. If any impeachment process starts now, it will affect the President and his party,” he opined.