The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has defended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with regards to his remarks on the strides government has made in the fight against corruption.
President Akufo-Addo while speaking at the Bar Conference in Takoradi on Monday dismissed claims that he has been clearing officials in his government indicted in corruption scandals without evidence.
The President insisted that he has never independently declared any official innocent in instances where they are alleged to be involved in corrupt deals.
“It is not my job to clear or convict any person accused of wrongdoing or of engaging in acts of corruption. My job is to act on allegations of corruption by referring the issue or issues to the proper investigative agencies for the relevant enquiry and necessary action. That is exactly what has been done since I assumed the mantle of leadership on 7th January, 2017,” he said.
But his critics are not convinced and have tagged the President as a “clearing agent” who clears his officials accused of corruption.
Responding to critics of the president, the Minister of Information stated that, corruption issues are matters for investigative agencies thus, the president’s responsibility to support them by providing the needed tools.
“As we do know, the president is neither a police officer, prison warden or an investigator. What he can do is to ensure that the state institutions that are responsible for fighting corruption are supported with the kind of support needed as he has stated already,” he said.
The Minister explained that supporting state institutions to be more responsive in the fight against corruption is essential to the fight against the canker.
According to him, the government is making significant investments in state institutions and “it will be good if somebody can tell us that it is not true that those institutions are fully resourced as the president said.”
“This is an uncontroversial fact.”
He also described the opposition’s criticism of President Akufo-Addo as preposterous since it is the job of the various investigative agencies to do their job and report to the president what their findings are.
“It is up to the investigative agencies to come out and tell us what they have. The President cannot say that the fact that the investigative agencies have not told him who may have done some wrong, then it means that the president is a clearing agent and has cleared the person,” he said.
He assured the public that the president will ensure that every single allegation of corruption is investigated through various stipulated means such as public commissions of inquiry, bipartisan committees in parliament and the courts.