It has emerged that none of the 52 Hyundai i10s that the erstwhile John Mahama-led NDC government listed in the inventory of state cars which former Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah said were left behind by their government can be traced.
Interesting revelation coming out from government quarters indicate that the then Chief of Staff, Julius Debra and other NDC government officials sold these vehicles to some officials few days before packing out from office.
Minister of Information Mustapha Abdul-Hamid has revealed that the current government has discovered that some state vehicles were sold to officials of the Mahama administration just 48 hours before handing over power to the new government on 7 January 2017.
According to him as against claims by former President John Mahama that his government left behind a “sea of cars” after exiting office, only 179 vehicles were met by the Akufo-Addo government.
“I am telling you on authority that we haven’t seen a single Hyundai i10 vehicle,” Mr. Abdul-Hamid revealed, adding that Mr. Debrah also sold some of the vehicles to some officials. I have before me a letter dated 5 January 2017, which is two days to handing over power, in which Mr. Julius Debrah signed off one of the Nissan Sentra vehicles and sold it to one WO1 Kanzoyi Jacob at the office of the president, VIP Protection Unit.” He said.
The Information minister also revealed that per this particular act, it seems that even though these vehicles were in the hands of their officials, the Mahama administration proceeded to sell them off to their officials while giving the new government a dead list and pretending that those vehicles were available.
“So, I’m saying that on record, what we have received were 179 but from what I have of some of the letters that he signed off on the 5th of January selling off these vehicles to their officials, they sold them off to themselves before they gave the power to us,” the Minister said.
He also noted that the vehicles that were handed over to the NPP government as indicated by documents the NDC governments officials compiled and gave out are 179.
Although this hidden agenda has been uncovered by the current government, it is yet to retrieve any of the ‘stolen’ vehicles since according to the Minister, government is still compiling.
He said: “We are still compiling. We will come to you when the work of the committee is concluded because the NDC officials have to help us also by telling us where the vehicles are; they are not. Right now as I’m telling you, these documents that we just received from the DVLA which they were selling vehicles to people on the 5th and 6th of January, tell you that the processes are still going on and it will take a lot of time to find all of these extra vehicles that are not accounted for.”
By: PROSPER AGBENYEGA