An Independent Anti-Corruption Consultant, Vitus Azeem, is criticizing Mr. Greenstreet’s response to a question that sought his views on President John Mahama’s ford gift saga.
Speaking to Citi News, Vitus Azeem said the comment suggests that the CPP is not ready to fight corruption should they be given the mandate to govern the country.
Ivor Greenstreet while taking his turn at the Institute of Economic Affairs’ (IEA) Evening Encounter Series with Presidential hopefuls, refused to take on President Mahama in the $100,000 ford expedition gift saga.
He was asked the question because in the heat of the revelations about the gift, he said the President had done no wrong by accepting the gift.
[contextly_sidebar id=”2zEcoBnqlVxVW2YLaiJ5HMvwQr0apyWV”]President Mahama has been criticized by opposition parties for accepting the gift which they consider to be bribery and puts him in a conflict of interest position, because the Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, later benefited from some lucrative contracts.
But when his view was sought at the IEA encounter, Ivor Greenstreet said he won’t join the “bandwagon” of criticisms against the President without evidence.
“They want me to jump on their bandwagon. I am not an agitator for other people’s political intentions. And we’ve constantly heard the refrain on radio, people are tried on radio and are found guilty even before they have the opportunity to respond….I refuse to be part of a group of people who seek to denigrate individuals…I won’t tell the president he is corrupt unless I have evidence against him,” he added.
Vitus Azeem insisted that, the presidential hopeful was unfair to Ghanaians because he shied away from the question.
“He refused to answer the question because I think he has a problem with his own party. They dissociated themselves from it and so he decided not to answer that question and I think that was not fair to Ghanaians and even to himself because he had the opportunity to speak to Ghanaians to tell them about his stance.”
Vitus Azeem insisted that, the CPP needs to come out with clear guidelines on how it will tackle corruption.
“I think they have to come out with an agenda, maybe it is in their manifesto, but they need to come out with a better agenda on how they will handle corruption if it comes up. Corruption is a general problem in this country and we are interested in how every government will handle it but not the way he answered that question.”
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin