Smear campaign against Bagbin won’t work - Analyst

In an interview in Takoradi, Mr. Mintah laments that people on what he says is a hatchet mission to pull down Bagbin, are maligning arguably Ghana's most exemplary political leader in the whole of the Fourth Republic.

“What would make anybody go on national television to call the sitting Speaker who is respected and beloved by many, “a thief” on the basis of some old dead document that virtually has no relevance in the current scheme of things?” he asked rhetorically.

According to him, “those behind this behaviour must bow their heads in shame because what they are seeking to do is to bring down one of the country’s most exemplary leaders of the current Republic.”

Mr. Mintah’s lamentation is over a recent claim by Onua FM journalist, Godsbrain Smart, alias Captain Smart, that the Speaker expropriated public funds some 24 years ago when he was the leader of the Minority in Parliament.

According to Mr. Smart, a report by the Auditor General in 2000 or thereabout captured that Hon. Bagbin had applied for support from the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) for a group of women in the Upper West Region called the Sombo group.

However, after the money had been given, Hon. Bagbin took some 4 million old cedis from about 18 million that had been given to the women.

Captain Smart also accused Bagbin of getting vehicles from the same GPHA for parliamentary election campaigning and when one of the cars was involved in an accident, the GPHA had to settle the insurance cover.

“Like others have pointed out, this story has all the fingerprints of mischief all over it. What would make anybody go and dig up a 22 or even 24-year-old document and use it as basis to call a whole sitting brilliant Speaker of Parliament a thief? This obviously is the doing of somebody serving the interest of some paymasters,” Mintah said.

He pointed out that per the age of the document, “there is a high likelihood that the issue was sorted out years ago, given that it was the Auditor General’s report. Is Mr. Smart telling us that the Kufuor government did not investigate and clear this issue? And what about the Public Accounts Committee?”

Mr. Mintah also accused Captain Smart of unprofessionalism, pointing out that the broadcaster came to insult Bagbin as a thief on national television without even first contacting the Speaker for his side of the story.

“This dirty attempt to style the Rt. Hon. Speaker into a thief is disgustingly shameful and those behind it should accordingly bow their heads in shame,” Mr. Frank Mintah said.

He warned that the attempt to assassinate Bagbin’s character carries a collateral damage of very likely making Ghana as a whole look bad because the Speaker carries a polished image for Ghana internationally

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