Deputy National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Julius Kwame Anthony, has challenged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to produce identifiable witnesses to substantiate allegations that some Ghanaians were shortchanged during the evacuation exercise.
He questioned the credibility of claims that some individuals who were expected to receive GH¢5,000 each were given only GH¢2,000, insisting that those making such allegations must be prepared to come forward and support them with evidence.
Speaking to Isaac Addae on The Verdict on Starr FM, Mr Anthony argued that there was no identifiable individual who had publicly confirmed being a victim of the alleged shortchanging.
“The fact of the matter is that as we speak today, there is no recognisable person who is claiming that they signed for 5,000 cedis and took less,” he stated.
According to him, the claims were based on accounts attributed to unnamed individuals who were reportedly contacted by someone claiming to protect their identities from the Ghanaian public.
He maintained that individuals who believe they were denied part of the money due them should be willing to make formal statements to assist investigations into the alleged financial irregularities.
“If you are entitled to money which belongs to the taxpayer, government of Ghana money, and someone makes you sign for 5,000 but gives you 2,000, that, in any case, is a case for which fraud could be alleged,” Mr Anthony argued.
He further insisted that the alleged victims should not be shielded from the accountability process, particularly when the funds involved were public resources, including donations made by private individuals to support the state-led evacuation exercise.
He stressed that anyone who genuinely believes they have been shortchanged should be willing to provide evidence to support the allegations.
“So if we are going to go after officials for that thing, then we’ll be needing those witnesses to make statements under oath that they were shortchanged indeed,” he added.
Mr Anthony maintained that producing credible witnesses would be necessary to establish whether beneficiaries were indeed denied the full amounts they were entitled to receive.
Story By Pamela Quayson
