General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has slammed the ruling government over what he termed a cover up of the unlawful seizures and attacks on former officials of state and members of the umbrella family.
He was responding to the release by the Chief of Staff, Madam Frema Opare calling on former government appointees under the former Mahama-led administration, to return all state assets in their custody.
The statement from the office of Chief of State said, a task force has been formed to retrieve all assets and former officials are to collaborate or force would be applied.
But Johnson Asiedu Nketiah in an interview with Kwame Tutu on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm said the release by the Chief of Staff is vague.
According to him, he finds the release problematic adding, “recently some homes have been invaded and properties seized. And when these things happen and you call the various security heads, they will tell you that we have not sanctioned anyone to do that.
“Take a look at Kofi Adams’ invasion, the National Security Minister later apologised so why should we behave like we are still under military rule? If we are under a civilian rule but someone has trained a group calling themselves invincible forces to terrorise people, then what will be our faith?”
In his view, the ruling government must list or publish all the assets that are allegedly in the hands of some former government officials, and use appropriate means to retrieve them and stop the ‘rambo style’.
“We are under a constitutional rule and there are ways things are done under a constitutional government. Before a government hands over power, there is an inventory of all assets which they officially hand over to a new one. They sign and account to the new one. So if I have handed over to you and you believe there are problems, who do you ask?
“Don’t you ask the one who handed over power to you? But the one who handed over power is there and you go round training people to go and invade houses and seize properties and terrorise people. What shows that they will hand over these things back to government after seizing them?’’
He charged government to bring an end to the lawlessness. ‘’We are not saying government assets are not in the hands of people or are we against the recovery. I cannot vouch for any former officer that he or she may still be keeping some assets but the right procedure must be followed.
He questioned what should be done to those who invaded the homes of the former officers under NDC after the government denied sanctioning such acts.
‘’That is why I’m saying that government must come out and list all the assets that are missing so that we will be able to recover them lawfully… The list must exist. So if the office of Chief of Staff has been informed of missing assets, who informed her? The statement is vague. This is speculation since the statement was borne out of hearsay. We govern by facts, and not hearsay,’’ he added.
He described the move as a political witch haunting and has challenged government to do the proper thing and stop terrorizing people.
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