The allegations were made by a former Deputy Chief of Staff, Dr. Valerie Sawyerr, who also accused Mr. Amoah of failing to go through procurement processes before he purchased the vehicles.

[contextly_sidebar id=”S3gY67ADB82Gc7oCPROFYgB4rMgjz46N”]“Your MASLOC CEO, Stephen Amoah purchased 1,800 second-hand cars with no MASLOC board in place and no PPA (Public Procurement Authority) approval,” she said in an article widely published in the media.

Provoked by the remark, Mr. Amoah in a statement denied the allegations, and also gave Dr. Valerie Sawyer a one-week ultimatum to retract the publication and apologize or incur his wrath.

“In that passage, Dr. Valarie Sawyer stated emphatically that, I Stephen Amoah, CEO of MASLOC has purchased one thousand eight hundred (1,800) second-hand cars with no board in place and no PPA approval. I, Stephen Amoah, CEO of MASLOC have not purchased 1,800 second-hand cars as has been insistently stated by Dr. Valarie Sawyerr. I found this statement defamatory. It is believed that Dr. Valarie Sawyerr’s arbitrary decision to issue this false statement has been sadly induced by her ego trips just to smear my hard earned reputation.”

Mr. Amoah, who said Dr. Sawyerr’s piece has tarnished his image badly, stated that, “My illiterate and cherished mother has been traumatized.”

“I am accordingly giving you, Dr. Valarie Sawyerr one-week from today, 9:00am, Friday, 3^rd of November, 2017, to reflect on your disparaging statement against me and the President, retract and render an unequivocal apology to me, the president of the Republic of Ghana and the entire Ghanaian community. Failure to do this honourable, admirable, respectable and praiseworthy thing, will inform my next line of action,” Mr. Amoah added in the statement issued on Friday.

350 abandoned vehicles at MASLOC

MASLOC dominated the news during the early part of October 2017 following the procurement of some 350 vehicles by the previous administration, meant for drivers belonging to the GPRTU.

But the cars were rejected by the union who say they were “too expensive.”

The centre in the past few years, has been involved in the sale of cars on credit to individuals and groups including Members of Parliament, musicians and celebrities; however, it struggles to retrieve the monies owed it.

Valerie Sawyerr blasts Bawumia over digital address system

Dr. Valerie Sawyerr,in that article also took Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to the cleaners, following some utterances the second gentleman made prior to the launch of the country’s digital address system also known as Ghana Post GPS.

Dr. Sawyerr believes the Vice President deceived Ghanaians when he said the $2.5 million worth system will be more advanced than those used in the UK and United States of America.

“It is more advanced than the United States or the United Kingdom or Germany because they are stuck to old technology, and we are leapfrogging. We are going to a new technology; we are going to GPS-based technology,” Dr. Bawumia said when he delivered a lecture at the University of Cape Coast, on October 5, 2017.

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

The post Apologize for defaming me; else… MASLOC Boss to Valerie Sawyerr appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

After speaking to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko by phone, Putin said he believed Kiev and pro-Russian separatists could reach agreement at planned talks in Minsk on Friday.

“Our views on the way to resolve the conflict, as it seemed to me, are very close,” Putin told reporters during a visit to the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, describing the seven steps he had put forward to secure a resolution to the crisis.

They included separatists halting offensive operations, Ukrainian forces pulling back, an end to Ukrainian air strikes, the creation of humanitarian aid corridors, the rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and prisoner exchanges.

Poroshenko indicated the conversation with Putin had injected some momentum into efforts to end a conflict that has killed more than 2,600 people since April, saying he hoped the “peace process will finally begin” at Friday’s talks and that he and Putin had a “mutual understanding” on steps towards peace.

But Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk dismissed the plan as a “deception” on the eve of a NATO summit that will discuss Ukraine, adding in a harshly worded statement: “The real plan of Putin is to destroy Ukraine and to restore the Soviet Union.”

U.S. President Barack Obama also voiced caution, saying the conflict could end only if Russia stopped supplying the rebels with weapons and soldiers, a charge Moscow has denied.

Visiting the former Soviet republic of Estonia, now in NATO and the European Union, Obama said previous ceasefires had not worked “either because Russia has not been serious about it or it’s pretended that it’s not controlling the separatists”.

In a further sign of the West’s growing mistrust and disapproval of Moscow over its conduct in Ukraine, France said it would not go ahead with the planned delivery of the first of two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia.

Moscow has said scrapping the 1.2 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) deal would harm France more than Russia and the Defence Ministry described the decision as “no tragedy”, but the move is likely to anger the Kremlin and underlines Russia’s growing isolation over events in Ukraine.

NEW SANCTIONS POSSIBLE

The EU, which has followed Washington in imposing limited economic sanctions on Russia, could agree new moves against Moscow on Friday, hitting the defense and finance sectors.

Indicating European leaders were not impressed by Putin’s new proposals, French President Francois Hollande’s office said he had reached his decision “despite the prospect of a ceasefire, which has yet to be confirmed and put in place”.

The ceasefire proposals had little immediate impact on the ground. Shelling of the rebel-held city of Donetsk continued and grey plumes of smoke poured up from the area that includes the city’s airport.

Rebel leaders said they had little faith that Ukrainian forces would observe any truce in a conflict that has left Russia’s relations with the West at their worst level since the end of the Cold War more than two decades ago.

“A ceasefire is always good but our main condition still stands – to withdraw Ukrainian troops from our territory. That’s the only reasonable way,” said Vladimir Antyufeyev, deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

A truce would provide Poroshenko with some respite to revive a crumbling economy, battered by months of street protests against a president sympathetic to Moscow and then the violence that erupted after his ouster in February, followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and then prolonged fighting in the east.

A ceasefire may also be more welcome to Poroshenko now because his forces have suffered setbacks in the past week.

Putin is widely thought intent on ensuring Moscow at least continues to have influence in largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine after the conflict ends, though fears of a full-scale invasion by Russia remain in Kiev.

WAR GAMES

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, sought to address concerns over the ceasefire proposals by saying they did not address the status of the rebel-held areas. Some rebels want unification with Russia, others want more independence inside Ukraine.

Peskov also denied a statement by Poroshenko’s office suggesting Putin had agreed a ceasefire. That would imply Moscow was a party to the conflict, and Kiev later amended the wording.

Despite Putin’s proposals, the Defence Ministry announced plans for huge military exercises this month by the strategic rocket forces responsible for its long-range nuclear weapons, involving 4,000 troops in south-central Russia.

Obama made clear NATO, which holds a summit in Wales on Thursday and Friday, would not be cowed.

“NATO must make concrete commitments to help Ukraine modernize and strengthen its security forces. We must do more to help other NATO partners, including Georgia and Moldova, strengthen their defenses as well,” he said in a speech in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

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Source: Reuters

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