KONADU CALLS NDC GOV’T THIEF

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu 

Friday, May 13 , 2016

Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has described the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), a party her husband Jerry John Rawlings founded, as “either not wise, a thief or both.”

She also said the time had come for Ghanaians to rise up and save the country from their “criminality.”

Mrs Rawlings, who was recently elected unopposed to lead the National Democratic Party (NDP) in the November presidential election, is wading into ongoing discourse on the news that Finance Minister Seth Terkper supervised the illegal diversion of $250 million into a private bank in flagrant breach of the law.

Dodgy Transaction

The dodgy transaction was revealed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) vice presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, when he delivered a public lecture at the Accra Polytechnic on “Youth Unemployment: Causes and Solutions” last Friday and said the transaction should be reversed without delay.

The $250 million, being part of the proceeds from Ghana’s $1 billion Eurobond, was lodged at the UBA Bank and Mr Terpker has admitted that funds were transferred to the private bank on behalf of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) to invest in Treasury Bills.

The Eurobond was borrowed at an all-high interest rate of 10.75% but the $250 million ended up at UBA, which in turn used the funds to purchase Treasury Bills by lending to government at an interest rate of more than 20%.

Parliamentary Enquiry

Dr Bawumia, as a result, has called for a parliamentary enquiry into the scandal and has asked the Finance Minister to resign but Mr Terkper has since insisted that he broke no law and would not resign.

Facebook Outburst

Yesterday, Mrs Rawlings took to social media platform, Facebook to lambast the Mahama-led NDC government for mismanaging the economy and bringing economic hardship to Ghanaians.

She posted: “If you borrow money at a high interest rate to lend it to another at a low interest rate, then borrow your own money back from them at a high interest rate, you are either not wise, a thief or both.”

“No wonder their campaign message of ‘vote for us so they don't jail us’,” she added, apparently making a direct reference to an appeal by former Transport Minister that the people of the Volta Region should not vote for the opposition NPP for fear that she might go to jail if the NPP were elected.

Mrs Dzifa Attivor caused public outrage when she asked Voltarians to retain the NDC in government because she feared that if the NPP won the November elections, she and other ministers from the region would be jailed.

She specifically said that the NPP, when in government, jailed appointees who were from the Volta Region and could repeat it if they won the election, before inciting the Ewe ethnic group against the opposition party.