<<Print>>

Loyalists of a parliamentary aspirant for the North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Christopher Kofi Eleblu, who was wrongly accused in an alleged fraud case during his time as Director of Internal Audit at the Ministry of Health (MoH) have hit back at their man�s accusers. According to them, the allegations leveled against Mr. Christopher Eleblu, who has filed his nomination papers to contest the party�s primary in the constituency are plots being orchestrated by his political opponents to scuttle his ambition. Even though these stalwarts have pleaded anonymity for now, they told The New Crusading GUIDE that they are ready to publicly speak out and expose people within the ruling party should their man be disqualified. This paper has gathered that there was a grand plot by the party�s leadership at the regional level to capitalize on the frivolous fraud allegation against Mr. Eleblu to disqualify him from the race, and the regional chairman is said to be at the forefront of the disqualification ploy. Supporters of Mr. Eleblu have also spiritedly defended that their man was not involved in the so-called fraud at the Ministry and that any attempt by the party leadership to disqualify him from contesting the primaries will be unfair to him and a dent on the party�s image, since it will clearly show the leadership�s bias against him. Several sources within the constituency have mentioned the Deputy Education Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who is the incumbent MP, as the brain behind the machinations to have Mr Elebu disqualified. Mr Eleblu�s adversaries, the loyalist alleged, have joined forces with the Economic and Organized Crime Office to ensure that he does not find his way to the primaries, and that his opponents have made it a point to always, during elections, resurrect the fraud allegation against him so as to create disaffection among his supporters toward him. �The same thing was done during the early part of 2009, after the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) took over political power from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), an article appeared in the pro-NDC newspaper, Daily Democrat, citing Mr Eleblu in the alleged scandal�. Supporters of Mr Elebu are calling on the party leadership not to be drawn into frivolous personal vendetta against him by some people whose relevance in the constituency has outlived its usefulness. They argued that disqualifying him based on the claims and allowing such persons to contest the seat could lead to a heavy defeat of the party in the constituency because �the incumbent MP has lost his relevance in the area and there is no way they can win power for the party.� Although Mr Elublu lost to Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa in the last parliamentary primaries, his supporters believe he is back in full swing to win this time round and want the continuous politically motivated harassment and intimidation to stop. It could be recalled that the Daily Democrat newspaper publication at the time, sought to create the impression that Mr Eleblu together with other officials at the Ministry of Health connived with some contractors to ward contract and that no work was done. The story purported that during the same period, on 18thJune 2009, the National Security wrote to EOCO to investigate the alleged crime, and that since then investigations have been ongoing and several invitations had been extended to him, all of which he duly honoured. This paper learnt that although EOCO failed to prosecute him, it continued to harass Mr Eleblu with invitations and questions to no avail without processing him for court. It has emerged that all the current happenings are being orchestrated by his contenders who have lost touch with the delegates in the North Tongu constituency to do all to gain political advantage. Giving a brief of what transpired at the Ministry for Health for which Mr Eleblu is being accused of corruption, a source at the ministry explained that in 2008, the late Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah engaged the services of some contractors to do periodic maintenance work on 52 training institutions under the ministry, to which contracts and agreements were signed between the MoH and the contractors with job orders given to that effect. As a result various amounts were charged by different contractors per the job each was to do on quarterly basis; hence the first contract was signed on September 1, 2008. �Advance mobilisation fees of 50 per cent of the annual charge for the first year in 2008 was paid to the entities fee for the 52 maintenance contract works were awarded after each contractor provided bank guarantee,� the source pointed out, insisting that Mr. Eleblu as an internal auditor had no hand in the award of the contract.