• Lawyer Martin Kpebu says Agyeman-Manu’s conduct and refusal to resign makes Ghana resemble a banana republic
• The minister is currently on special two-week leave to deal with personal issues
A private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has continued his call for embattled health minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, to resign citing his central role in a botched vaccine deal.
The Sputnik V scandal and a damning Parliamentary Committee report has upped calls for the minister to resign after it emerged that his evidence to the Committee contained inconsistencies and in some cases, outright lies.
For Kpebu, the minister’s refusal to resign in the midst of overwhelming evidence of malfeasance makes Ghana look like a banana republic.
He buttressed his resignation call citing among others the untruth relating to whether or not it was the Dubai Sheikh that approached Ghana in respect of vaccine supply and the issue of fund transfer and at what point it was made.
“The ministry approached the Sheikh, yet this man (Agyeman-Manu) came out and said the Sheikh that approached the ministry, one lie.
“Then another one, he said that he had contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry, it was when all his diligent efforts failed that he dealt with the Sheikh’s office, it turned out that he contacted the Sheikh on the 9th of March, then almost two months later, ending of April, that was when he sought to contact the Russian Foreign Ministry.
According to him, it has been a long time a minister of state got caught in such flagrant breaches yet continued to stay in office.
“So one lie too many. I don’t remember the last time a minister did this. I mean the barrage of breaches of the law and the embarrassment which is unprecedented, I don’t think we have been through this before.
“A public officer having breached all these laws and still has the audacity to hold on to the office. I mean, come on, he is making us look like a banana republic,” Kpebu said in an interview with Joy News.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the president has granted the embattled Minister a two-week leave to deal with personal issues.
Kwaku Agyeman-Manu and Martin Kpebu