A private legal practitioner and Member of Parliament for the Efutu constituency, Alex Afenyo Markin has said the inquiry by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) into the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and its flagbearer is discriminatory.
He also intimated that there was the need for an investigation into party like the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and how it funded its new part headquarters.
EOCO in a letter dated October 21, gave the flagbearer of the PPP, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom up till Wednesday, October 26, to explain how he funded aspects of his political campaigns.
In particular, EOCO is asking Dr. Nduom to explain the source of the over GHc1.7 million he used to pay his filing fee at the Electoral Commission (EC) and that of his parliamentary candidates.
But speaking to Citi News, Mr. Afenyo Markin held that the inquiry into Dr. Nduom is misplaced and ultimately one with little basis.
According to him, “EOCO is setting a bad example, a bad precedent is being set and like I have already said, this is discriminatory. They must not say that PPP should come and explain. Come and explain what?”
“Is it that EOC finds the NPP and the NDC too big to be touched? In any event, if there is any party at all to be investigated to find out how they are funding their filling fees then the NDC should be the first party to be on their watch list.”
“We’ve had issues that the public have expressed interest in, ie: how the NDC funded its ultramodern party office. Didn’t this become of interest to EOCO,” Mr Afenyo Markin.
Witch hunt against Nduom
The PPP has since accused government of deliberately using EOCO to frustrate its flagbearer, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom ahead of the 2016 elections.
According to the party, EOCO is conducting a witch-hunt against its flagbearer, Dr. Nduom and the party because their participation in this 2016 election is the threat to government.
In reaction to the letter Kofi Asamoah Siaw, Policy Advisor of the PPP said, “because of the votes Ghanaians will give us is a threat to some group of people and it will create some kind of destabilizing force among their party, they are doing everything under the sun to make sure that we don’t participate. With all due respect, it is the biggest joke of the century.”
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.