<<Print>>

A former Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA,) Daniel Amartey Mensah, says he is ever ready to meet the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) if the Commission invites him to help with any investigations about him. His pronouncement came in the wake of a petition supposed to have been filed at CHRAJ against him on alleged corrupt practices by an Assembly man for Nkpor Electoral Area at LEKMA, Prince Aminu Saana. Mr. Amartey, who did not look perturbed in his interview with Today indicated his readiness to face CHRAJ if he is invited to help in any investigations that has to do with him. �I�m ever prepared to go to CHRAJ to help in any investigations if the Commission invites me since I have nothing to hide,� he assured. The former MCE who is vying for the Greater Accra Regional chairmanship position of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) noted that CHRAJ would have stopped him from campaigning if indeed he had been petitioned at CHRAJ. �I can say without any form of contradiction that no petition has been filed against me at CHRAJ,� he stated. �My brother (referring to this reporter) do you think CHRAJ would have allowed me to do what I�m doing (campaigning) if somebody had petitioned against me? It is not true and I daresay that let the Commission invite me if there is anything against me,� the Greater Accra regional chairman hopeful of NDC added. The former LEKMA boss was responding to series of corruption allegations leveled against him by Prince Aminu Saanu, Assembly man for Nkpor. The Nkpor Assembly man last week organised a press conference at Teshie, a suburb of Accra, to raise some corruption scandals which he said were allegedly perpetuated by the former MCE. Buying of wrong ambulance for LEKMA health directorate, making false documents to secure contracts and dealing with non-existing companies were among the issues he raised against the NDC Greater Accra regional chairman aspirant. The aggrieved assembly man, for example, said an amount of GH�149, 600.00 which was raised between 2011 and 2012 for the purchase of an ambulance ended up in buying a caravan instead. He continued that an amount of GHC90,950.19 for the rehabilitation of Teshie Community Library was in 2012 paid to M/S SOFOBIT Limited under bizarre circumstances. Between 2012 and 2013, Prince Aminu Saani claimed the former MCE unilaterally paid out the assembly�s fund of GHC40,000.00 to a ghost company by name Africa Connections under the pretense of sending 4 delegations to the USA to participate in the 9th Focus on Africa. That, he stressed, motivated him to petition CHRAJ to investigate the aspiring Greater Accra regional chairman of the NDC. But, Mr. Amartey, who said he was not in Ghana when the Assembly man for Nkpor Electoral Area held the said press conference, denied everything said against him, saying �my work at the assembly during my reign as MCE was incomparable.� He did not mince words when he attacked his critics whom he mentioned are the incumbent Greater Accra Regional chairman of the NDC, Joseph Kobina Ade Coker, and the current MCE of LEKMA Seth Badu Tawiah, for being behind what he described as a �sinister move� by his detractors. �I know all those who are behind this and I can assure them that they will fail� as for Ade Coker, I have personally told him that if he hits me once I will hit him twice after all I�m not in office,� he stressed. None of Ade Coker�s tactics, he said, will deter him from backing out from the NDC Greater Accra regional chairmanship race. �I know Mr. Ade Coker is a leading contender but I will march him boot for boot so he [Ade Coker] should get prepared for me,� he boasted. The former MCE who sounded pious throughout the interview could not fathom why some people were bent on destroying him. To this end, he advised all the contestants in the race to conduct their campaign with civility and in fairness.