The Minority Leader is accusing the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) of misleading Parliament in a cocaine allegation case that is increasingly becoming a tale of mistaken identity.
Haruna Iddrisu had warned the president to withdraw the Deputy Agric Minister nominee George Oduro because of a damning report by the BNI which linked the nominee to a drug related offence in 2007.
Even though the Minority had boycotted the vetting of the deputy ministerial nominees, the leader minced no words in demanding the withdrawal of the Deputy Minister of Agric.
“In respect of the nominees, I am compelled to request that the president should consider withdrawing the nomination of one of the appointees named George Oduro because there is a damning BNI report on him,” he said on the floor of Parliament Thursday.
The report said the nominee George Oduro was on May 2008 mentioned as a principal suspect in a cocaine syndicate. He was supposed to have travelled on a Canadian passport and had an accomplice named Nelson Troy Edward, the report suggested.
The BNI further recommended that the nominee be withdrawn to prevent future embarrassment to the country.
It turned out that the drug suspect, may not the nominee but has similar name- George Kwame Oduro.
After his vetting by a one-sided parliament, Thursday, the Deputy Agric Minister nominee, George Oduro told Joy News he never dealt in cocaine neither has he travelled to Canada before in his entire life.
He also stated emphatically that he does not know or ever met the supposed accomplice Troy Edward.
Even more dramatic, the nominee said his name is George Boahene Kofi Oduro and not George Kwame Oduro as the BNI report indicated.
He wondered why the BNI will write any such report without seeking to hear from him.
“I have never ever travelled on any Canadian passport, neither have i ever dealt in any narcotics trade,” he told Joy News Editor Dzifa Bampoh.
In a response the Minority Leader indicted the BNI for misleading him and the Minority.
“This is more an indictment on the integrity and professional work of the BNI. As part of our work at the Appointment Committee we normally will request for background information of the nominees from the BNI, police, Ghana Revenue Authority,” he pointed out.
He said his comments on the matter was informed by the report he received from the BNI in a letter dated 23 March 2017.
If there is a case of mistaken identity, he said the BNI must take responsibility for it.
“If we erred, we erred on the caution of the BNI, not on our own,” he stated.
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