Mr. Pelpuo said this to highlight what he called double standards exhibited by the NPP on matters pertaining to corruption.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ecy8ZEusmml9w8fLzparxOVdfKIkeCfn”]Speaking on The Big Issue as the world marked International Anti-Corruption Day, the MP made reference to President Nana Akufo-Addo’s endorsement of the founder of the Jospong Group of Companies, Joseph Siaw Agyepong.

He reminded the NPP that it had accused the National Democratic Congress, when it was in power, of “dealing with Zoomlion [which is owned by Jospong] in ways that they deemed were corrupt.”

“After all these condemnations of the NDC’s dealings with Zoomlion and then sending out a journalist to prove it and the journalist comes with some proof. At the same time, the one who led the campaign against us [the NDC] and against corruption, citing Zoomlion and ourselves as being corrupt came to say, I am praising this man.”

NPP lacking ‘moral grounds’

Mr. Pelpuo said the simple explanation for this turn of events was that President Akufo-Addo “no longer sees corruption now that he is in the seat and he can no longer see Zoomlion as the corrupt [company] they saw [in opposition].”

The NPP preached numerous anti-corruption messages en route to winning the 2016 elections and according to a number of observers, the government seems to be fulfiling some of the promises it made in that regard.

Parliament recently passed the Special Prosecutor Bill which will open what is hoped to be a non-partisan avenue for probing and prosecuting allegations of corruption within the government structure and beyond.

The NPP has sent out signals to the effect that it will go after corrupt officials within the past NDC government but Mr. Pelpuo held that the NPP government is incapable of following through with such pledges.

“I am just waiting to see them call any NDC man to say, you are going to court because they don’t have the moral ground to do so,” the NDC MP stated.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Nana Addo now ‘blind’ to corruption – Pelpuo appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had been at the forefront of the project since its inception, and deserved to be commended following the completion and recent commissioning.

[contextly_sidebar id=”9WqJvIfQuudSwim4stOT4w14jLI5A9bU”]”This is the first time I’m hearing that the NPP had a hand in the water NDC has provided for the people of Wa Central. It’s the NDC administration that initiated it and it’s the NDC administration that worked it out and ensured we have water supply in Wa for which we are extremely grateful,” Rashid Pelpuo said on Eyewitness News on Thursday.

The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, who commissioned the project on Monday, suggested that it was started during Kufuor’s tenure and stalled for five years after the NDC came into office before it was revived in 2013.

“It was in his (President Kufuor’s) time that the financing for this project was secured, as far back as 2008. But, unfortunately, after he left [office in 2008], it took five years under the NDC successor governments before the construction of the project began,” he had said.

“God has his own way of doing things. A project that was started by Kufuor is going to be commissioned by Akufo-Addo. That is the way the Almighty works”

Nana Addo’s comments provoked the ire of NDC communicators who accused the current government of trying to belittle the feats of the Mahama administration.

We started Wa Water project; Nana Addo ‘lied’ – NDC

The NDC in the Upper West Region said the President had lied, and that “the $51.54 million 3.3 million gallons per Day Wa water project was occasioned by the NDC administration. The sod cutting was done by HE John Dramani Mahama in February 2013 for works to start, five clear years after the NPP lost power to the Late President Mills in 2008.”

Rashid Pelpuo said he had urged then President, John Atta Mills, to take up the water issue in Wa Central after the NDC won the elections in 2008.

Pelpuo narrated that the Koreans had expressed a desire to take up the project, and after a delay due to”background checks and value for money analysis, when the government was satisfied that we were getting the money from a credible source, we signed a contract with them. Parliament itself approved it before we sent it to Parliament” he said.

What are the facts?

In March of 2009, then Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor serving in the NDC administration which had taken over office from the NPP, presented to parliament a number of water projects that were to take place. Among them was the Wa Water project.

Also, records from Parliament confirm that, the loan agreement between Ghana and the  Korean Exim Bank was adopted by Parliament in October 2012, during the John Mahama administration.

The project therefore could not have started under former President John Agyekum Kufuor, but rather commenced under the NDC’s John Dramani Mahama.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He said the manner in which the arrest was effected, and how the opposition activist was treated suggests it had political undertones.

[contextly_sidebar id=”8TZ2kxewgQq2Jwm7ApMqpo8p0Ypy6RD8″]Speaking on Eyewitness News, he said the action by the police against Appiah stadium was unfair, and thus called on President Akufo-Addo to order for the immediate release of the suspect.

Appiah stadium was arrested in the Ashanti Region on Tuesday afternoon after he alleged in a viral audio clip that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo smokes marijuana [wee], a banned substance.

He was handcuffed and transported to the Headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Accra to answer questions concerning his claims.

But according to Rashid Pelpuo, the police erred in their way of handling the matter.

He described the police as being “overzealous” and acting in the name of the President, when the president may not have authorized them to do so.

“I think that there is something political about it, and that is the reason why I think that it shouldn’t go far. This matter shouldn’t proceed beyond today [Tuesday]. The President should come out and ensure that he dissociates himself from this event and go ahead to order a release. If he wants, he can take his own action. He is the one insulted, he is the one who can take the matter to court, he is the one who can seek justice. And if it bothers on criminality then at one point he can wash his hands off and then the law can take its course. I think Appiah Stadium is being unfairly and unjustly being incarcerated.”

“If they [Police] are overzealous and they are doing it in the name of the president he should come out and say it’s not me [Akufo-Addo],” Rashid Pelpuo said.

Meanwhile, the police have said the arrest is grounded in law and they are looking to have Appiah Stadium substantiate his claim.

A Ghanaian lawyer and former Executive Director of Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, has suggested that it was wrong for the police to handcuff  Appiah Stadium, for allegedly accusing the President of smoking ‘wee’.

According to him, the president will be “extremely unhappy” over the development.

In a series of Facebook posts on the matter, he said, “These things shouldn’t happen. I can see the president being extremely unhappy about any citizen being arrested for allegedly insulting him. It goes against all that he stands for. I may not be privy to the details, but I know whatever the justification the President will not like this one bit…He [Appiah Stadium] could have been invited without the handcuffs. Very unnecessary; uncool.”

Akufo-Addo will not press charges against Appiah Stadium – Hamid

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has said he is not interested in pressing charges against Appiah Stadium.

The Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid, in a release copied to citifmonline.com, indicated that Akufo-Addo has informed the Police Administration of his position on the matter.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Appiah stadium was arrested after suggesting in a recent audio that went viral, that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo smokes marijuana [wee].

[contextly_sidebar id=”47ciwXiJlLRPg5S1yNmUAf7EYlUt0oev”]The former Minister of state in charge of Private Public Partnership under John Dramani Mahama’s presidency in an interview on Eyewitness News, said “If the president is not aware of the arrest, he should, right now order the release of this gentleman. It is not acceptable,’’ he said

He further said if the police acted on their own accord, the president must come out publicly and disassociate himself, alleging that the arrest was politically motivated.

“I think that there is something political about it, and that is the reason why I think that it shouldn’t go far. This matter shouldn’t proceed beyond today [Tuesday]. The President should come out and ensure that he dissociates himself from this event and go ahead to order a release. If he wants, he can take his own action. He is the one insulted, he is the one who can take the matter to court, he is the one who can seek justice. And if it bothers on criminality then at one point he can wash his hands off and then the law can take its course. I think Appiah Stadium is being unfairly and unjustly being incarcerated.”

“If they [Police] are overzealous and they are doing it in the name of the president, he should come out and say it’s not me [Akufo-Addo],” Rashid Pelpuo added.

He argued that many people made similar defamatory comments against former presidents Atta-Mills and Mahama, yet they were not treated the way Appiah stadium is being treated by the police.

Meanwhile, the police have said they did no wrong in arresting Appiah stadium. The Director of Public Affairs of the Police Service, David Eklu, said they wanted him to substantiate his claims.

Akufo-Addo will not press charges against Appiah Stadium – Hamid

President Akufo-Addo has said he is not interested in pressing charges against Appiah Stadium.

The Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid, in a release copied to citifmonline.com, indicated that Akufo-Addo has informed the Police Administration of his position on the matter.

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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Order Appiah Stadium’s release – Pelpuo to Nana Addo appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“That is an individual who decided to resign. What has that got to do with the government?” Mr. Pelpuo quizzed on The Big Issue.

“He [William Quaitoo] decided that he wanted to resign and he resigned and the government accepted his resignation. It has got nothing to do with an effort by the government, at least, on the face value.”

Mr. Quaitoo, who is also the Member of Parliament for Akim Oda, faced the scorn of the public, the National Democratic Congress Minority, and some civil society groups, for making ethnocentric comments, after saying northern farmers could not be trusted in their assessment of the damage from the army worm.

Mr. Quaitoo also said the calls on government for compensation by the northern farmers were simply a ploy to fleece the state.

The resignation was welcomed by the public but Mr. Pelpuo was adamant that the “government hasn’t done anything heroic.”

Under the Mahama Administration, he noted that the likes of the Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor and Power Minister, Kwabena Donkor resigned for varying reasons.

Dzifa Attivor was embroiled in the SMARTTYS bus branding saga and Kwabena Donkor’s resignation was related to the country’s crippling power crisis.

Mr. Pelpuo further said the eventual course of events was the only way the government could have saved face.

“It would be more embarrassing for the government if the President said; ‘I don’t accept your resignation’ and then the Minister insisted that he resign. It would have been more embarrassing,” he said.

The presidency had indicated that William Quaitoo, resigned on his own volition.

On the question of possible sanctions for the former Deputy Minister, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin explained that the President was engaged in other activities in some regions hence could not take an immediate decision.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the establishment of particularly the Northern Development Authority out of the remnants of SADA should not operate in a way that puts Northern Ghana at a disadvantage because the electoral fortunes of the NPP is not the best in that part of the country.

[contextly_sidebar id=”RVxYEhJFh03RYM3POMllT0RIgnXVolN9″]His comments follow the expected laying of the bills for the Northern, Middle Belt and Coastal Development Authorities in Parliament next week.

Speaking to Citi News’ Duke Mensah Opoku on Friday, Rashid Pelpuo said government must come clean on why it added other areas apart from the northern belt which has peculiar challenges.

“It’s a normal thing for any government that wants to undertake a development agenda to develop a policy that will translate it into a legal frame. So that’s why I see government couching their policy on the development sectors – the northern, middle belt and the coast belt, couching it on a bill which will appear before parliament soon. We are looking forward to examine the details of how that policy initiative if translated into law will come out. We want to see how that development bill will correspond to the peculiar needs of the various areas and why government decided to separate them into three development areas.”

He explained that during the NDC’s regime, they limited the areas to places that have challenges in development.

“So it is important to pull the north along so that we can have a good average for the country. But now if you are adding other places, there must be a reason to add those other places. Maybe they too have those kinds of challenges but that would depend on some feasibility study,” he added.

Nana Addo approves Act establishing 3 dev’t authorities

President Akufo Addo has approved an act establishing the three development authorities to be laid before Parliament on Wednesday.

The Coastal, Middle and Northern Belt Development Authorities according to the government, will be key in the administration of the one million dollars for every constituency each year.

Also, the Bill establishing the Zongo Development Fund will be laid before the House on Wednesday.

Dr. Muntaka Alolo, a Technical Economic Adviser at the Office of the Vice President, told Citi News that government is ready to fulfill those promises to Ghanaians.

“On Wednesday, the draft Bill will be made in Parliament for the establishment of the three development authorities but once it is made , the necessary parliamentary processes will take off so the bills are packed and the authorities will be established…” Dr. Alolo said.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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This, he said, made it difficult for the party to have a full grasp of the turf when the NPP had begun churning out electoral results.

[contextly_sidebar id=”lw2orUakNHXOf3LZu8tV94T8Ij3mAuYd”]His comments follow the release of the Kwesi Botchwey Committee report that recommended among other things, measures that could improve the collation of election results by the party.

Speaking to Citi News’ Duke Mensah Opoku, the Wa Central MP, Rashid Pelpuo, said NDC just gave away the 2016 elections per the party’s own posturing to certain key elements in electioneering.

“As at the time NPP was churning out results and claiming victory, the NDC had not gotten a grasp of what was happening. Our system even broke down and we could not assess the results the NPP was getting, neither could we see what we were even getting so there was a problem there. Our ability to utilize technology to understand what was happening and to be able to get into the depths to know the votes that we got, was lacking, and that eventually was one of our setbacks. Even if you are losing, you still need to know that you are losing. We were being told we were losing from our opponents and we did not have enough information to counter it. .. There was a technological deficit. There was inadequacy in technology in responding to the challenge at the time and I believe it is one of the areas that will be tackled  in the very near future when we are going into the next election.”

He said going forward, the party should be “up to date in technology and be able to transmit results more efficiently” to secure victory in the 2020 elections.

The 13-member committee set up by the NDC to probe its defeat in the 2016 election, presented its findings to the National Executive Council (NEC) on Monday.

As part of its recommendations, the committee asked the NDC to take a holistic look at its biometric electoral register.

The 55-paged report, titled, ‘listening to the grassroot’, said the NDC must take urgent steps to restore the integrity of the register.

Speaking at the presentation of the report, the Chairman of the Committee, Prof. Kwesi Botchwey, expressed hope that the recommendations will help capture power for the NDC in the next elections in 2020.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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According to him, the NDC did everything possible to fulfill the needs in the country yet the people of Ghana kicked them out from power.

He made the comment on Citi FM’s News analysis programme The Big Issue, on Saturday in defence of former President John Mahama’s recent remark on the cause of the NDC’s defeat.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Tkg5T2JkBXb9BhFm71egJlTEe7qFDDPh”]Mr. Mahama while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Durban, South Africa on Thursday, noted that he had an “incumbency disadvantage” hence his abysmal performance in the poll.

He also accused Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of promising Ghanaians “heaven.”

“I knew what the economy could give the people and I told the people the truth that we need more hard work to be able to get out of where we are; my opponent promised heaven and you have the constraints of not being able to promise all the rosy things he was doing,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pelpuo noted that “this is one of the elections that have been very difficult and mysterious to understand.”

“You have a government that is responsive to the needs of the people, you have a government that built schools, they [Ghana] wanted roads, we built roads, they wanted hospital, we built hospitals, they wanted water, we supplied water, we did everything that was possible to ensure that the people of Ghana know that this is a government that is responsive and responding to their basic need and creating conditions for them to be able to develop themselves individually and creatively.”

“In the end the same people voted against us as if we didn’t do anything at all.  We built and international airport harbours. It has never happened in the history of this country for a single government to even build about 50 secondary schools at a go within a space of four years… After doing all these things we thought we had touched the mind, the thinking and we are striking a chord with Ghanaians. In the end we got the worst votes that had ever been recorded since 1992,” he lamented.

Mahama loss by about a million votes to Akufo-Addo in the polls.

The NDC also lost hold of a number of Parliamentary seats to the New Patriotic Party.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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“Actually President Mahama doesn’t have a problem and the NDC doesn’t have a problem with anybody coming on the fray.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”72w7giHR2pNyhmGODraemsE8CRRqZdc2″]“We have done enough for Ghanaians to see and Ghanaians have shown commitment with us. if you see all the people following us and all the comments being made by supporters of NDC and well-wishers, you would see that Ghanaians have grown beyond the fact that people go into the presidential race with ideas which sometimes are not practicable, we are have demonstrated practicability and we have shown that we can do it and is evident for everybody to see. We are not threatened by Dr. Nduom, not NPP, not PNC; we not threatened by anybody at all,” he added.

Mr. Pelpuo made the comment on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue when the Progressive People’s Party’s (PPP) victory against the Electoral Commission in court was being discussed.

The EC disqualified about 13 presidential nominees from this year’s election citing issues with their nomination forms; a decision some of the political parties are protesting in court.

Meanwhile, an Accra High Court which heard the PPP’s case ordered the EC to allow the party to correct errors in their nomination forms.

Pelpuo also noted that the PPP’s victory shows that Ghana’s democracy has matured.

“Yesterday’s ruling was a landmark ruling that tells about the fact that our courts are working, rule of law is part of our lives and that our democracy is alive and kicking and that at any point in time we can be confident that we have a court to rely on and that when people feel aggrieved by decisions by an arm of government or a constitutional body, they can always appeal and have hearing and sometimes can have their grievances addressed in their favour. So it was a good time for us to celebrate our democracy and to also celebrate our courts,” he added.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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People from all walks of life thronged the Tindamba Park in Wa to catch a glimpse of the programme.

Bigwigs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the region such as Mr. Malik Issahak, immediate past Upper Wesr Regional Chairman, Joshua Akamba, Deputy National organizer , Kale Ceaser, Upper West Regional Campaign Coordinator as well as some parliamentary candidates were there to support Dr. Pelpuo who is seeking his fourth term bid to represent the Wa Central constituency in Parliament.

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By: Latiff Mahama/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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