All Assembly Members who received financial inducements from the District Chief Executive, DCE, nominee for Juaben, Alex Sarfo Kantanka, must be arrested.
This is a call by the anti-corruption watchdog Ghana Integrity Initiative, GII, whose Programmes Manager stated in an interview on Citi FM that existing laws show that the giver and receiver of bribes are all culpable.
“Per the law, both the giver and the receiver are culpable if found to have indeed engaged in the act. The onus lies on the police to also pick them up, and it is also for the MCE to prove that he indeed gave monies to unduly influence the process and for which he was supposed to benefit.
“He first needs to come clean on how much he gave and who he gave to, then the police will take it from there.”
Reports emerged days ago that the nominee had demanded Assembly Members refund monies he paid to them in exchange for votes.
Some media outlets quoted him as saying that he had paid some members 5,000 cedis each to vote for him in the second round of voting after he failed to attain enough votes at the first poll.
A viral secretly recorded video showed Sarfo Kantanka angrily making refund demands from members who received his monies. The setting is of a room and he is believed to have been engaged with some assembly members amid threats and insults.
The DCE has subsequently been granted a Police self-recognisance bail and has been invited by the Special Prosecutor to help with investigations into the issues of corruption.
The approval of MMDCEs has been dogged by instances of corruption on one part and violence with the use of armed security officials in some areas.
Analysts have criticized certain aspects of the MMDCE elections with the former ambassador and NPP founding member, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe accusing the President of being lawless by presiding over the chaos.
Part of his opening comments at a press conference he called last week was as follows: “Before I begin, permit me to state without any fear of contradiction that, Akufo-Addo is the most lawless president Ghana has ever had and do not believe in the rule of law.
“This act of his in recent times has found its way into our local government system,” he said.