North Tongu lawmaker Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said that Ghanaians deserve to know how state resources are managed by the President.
To him, state capture of resources is real under the present administration.
“Let nobody think state capture is an exaggeration, it is real, and many people are recounting their ordeals,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, September 14.
He further stated that “Natural resources belong to all of us, citizens must have a right not only to know how their state resources are being managed. Citizens also have the right to enjoy their properties with peace, serenity, and sanctity and they should not be under constant harassment and inundation as though we have become a banana republic where might is right. if you think you have political power then you just take whatever your eyes set upon, that can’t be tolerated, that can’t be a democracy.”
Okudzeto Ablakwa was reacting to the Office of the President’s denial of an allegation that acting through the Head of the VVIP Unit, it has been involved in a dispute over a piece of land belonging to Ghana International School (GIS).
The Presidency said it does not have any interest whatsoever in the piece of land in question.
“No officer, agent or assign has been directed to secure and/or interfere in any matter pertaining to GIS land within Cantonments; the said Chief Superintendent Ibrahim Opoku of the VVIP unit of the OOP did his professional duty by handing over alleged encroachers and suspects to the Cantonments Police Station when he chanced upon an altercation at the Cantonments barrier on his way from work; and
“The Chief Superintendent submitted his credentials at the police station, as he is enjoined to do, as part of standard operating procedure in such situations,” a statement issued on Thursday Septrember 5 said.
In light of the above, the Office of the President said it has made a formal complaint to the Inspector General of Police to investigate the entire matter.
“Meanwhile we call on the general public to disregard as false any statements to the contrary,” the statement said.
But Ablakwa said that “prime lands, at very jewel locations, are what have come under attack, cantonment, Labone airport …I am not impressed with the president’s statement. The statement is in bad faith, and prejudicial. You are calling for investigations, what do you? In all fairness to all sides we are making a formal complaint to the IGP and you stop there, you don’t have to take sides and present the narration that you have been told by Supremec Poku as the fact.”
