Visa scandal: Clearing of Dep. Sports Minister, NSA Board Chair suspicious – Batidam

Anti corruption campaigner, Daniel Batidam has said he suspects foul play in the investigations conducted into the Australia Visa racketeering scandal which led to the exoneration of Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide.

The Deputy Youth and Sports Minister and the Board Chairman of the National Sports Authority, Kwadwo Baah Agyemang were reinstated on Monday after police investigations cleared them of any wrongdoing.

However Mr Batidam has said government’s delay in making public the full report is suspicious.

“Many Ghanaians ,must have by now come to the conclusion that this President and this government is not only unable to do anything or much about issues of allegations of corruption that come up, but that it is actually actively protecting its members.I have been on recorded to have said that this cannot be in the interest of even of the government itself. One is tempted to think that perhaps there’s a wrong impression that the Presidency has that by shielding its appointees and by coming to their defense whenever claims of wrongdoing arise therefore they may be giving the impression that actually the appointees and the government for that matter is clean. I’m afraid that they are just postponing the problem.

Daniel Batidam who’s also the former Board Member of the African Union (AU) Advisory Board on Corruption, further questioned why the President should be the one clearing his appointees of any wrongdoing instead of the Police.



“On many other occasions the President has himself cleared the people without even recourse to these agencies, not to talk about the fact that indeed when the matters are said to have been referred to these agencies there’s lack of transparency about the processes that led to the conclusions that are given to us at the end. The other side that we keep saying is that, these are supposed to be independent institutions and it is not for the Presidency or government to be become the spokesperson of these agencies. If they don’t allow the public to know what exactly happened and they come out to tell us this is what the police have found and not even allow the Police themselves to come out and say it, then we have every right to question and doubt the credibility of what comes out. He told Starr News.