The former Minister of foreign Affairs, Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei has been charged with �willfully causing financial loss to the state after being arrested and granted a self-cognizance bail of GH�500,000 by the BNI.
Speaking on Peace FM�s Morning Show �Kokrokoo�, the former Minister said he is being charged for political reasons, but not that he has caused harm to the state. According to him, the charge has to do with several bags of rice his ministry imported from India which is reported to have gone bad.
Mr. Osei Adjei denied using State money to import the rice, explaining that he just negotiated with the Indian government for the National Investment Bank (NIB) to import the rice and sell it to the public to help solve a potential hunger problem, early this year. �It wasn�t the government, it was NIB which imported the rice and they paid for everything, so why charge me,� he demanded.
However, he disclosed that he had been informed that he will be appearing before the courts to answer questions concerning the said rice but before then he would be at the Accra High Court to reclaim his passport which was seized during interrogation at the BNI about two months ago, in connection with the same rice issue.
Reacting to the same report, the Managing Editor for the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Mr. Kwaku Baako said, the BNI has no convincing case to win against Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei. According to him, the rice arrived in January at which time the former Minister was not in charge anymore, it was therefore the responsibility of the new administration to see to the effective disposal of them.
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