Sekyi Hughes cannot be prosecuted although… – Aggudey

Presidential candidate of the CPP in the 2004 elections, George Aggudey has described as “unstatesman” the actions of former Speaker of parliament, Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, who stripped bare his official residence when he left office.

Mr Aggudey says Mr Hughes should have known better and left the furnishings behind. The Daily Graphic on its Thursday, May 14, 2009 edition reported that the total amount of the furnishings taken away by the Speaker is about 4.5 million Ghana cedis.

That figure has however been disputed by the Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, who chaired an adhoc committee set up by the Parliamentary Service Board to investigate the matter.

Mr Aggudey, who has for long remained silent after losing the Flagbearer race of his party in 2008 to Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom tells Citi News a clear cut policy must be put in place, spelling out what state officials are entitled to keep after leaving office to avoid a repeat of the former Speaker’s action.

“As a Speaker of Parliament, whether you have a policy as to what you keep and what you do not keep, it just stands to reason that the bungalow was furnished with state funds and things there belong to the state and therefore on his way out he should have as a prudent man left the items that belongs to the state in there because there will be another occupier of the premises” He added

Mr. Aggudey charged policy makers to emulate examples from the western countries and place value on what public officials can keep for themselves as against what the state can keep.

He said the former speaker would have done himself a lot of good by not taking away all those stuff including kitchen utensils. “We all need to behave as statesmen” he said.

Asked whether he shared in the assertion of some Ghanaians that the former speaker be prosecuted for his actions, Mr. George Aggudey responded in the negative saying “you cannot prosecute the man. He has made a mistake but to my mind and even according to the law he has not stolen the items”

George Aggudey also blamed the NPP government for setting a bad precedence, culminating in the controversies surrounding the recent seizure of cars from ex-government officials and their vacation from government bungalows. He appealed to former state officials still living in government bungalows to vacate the premises for newly appointed ministers to move in

On his future with the CPP, the former flagbearer of the party said there is no way he would abandon the party midstream after contributing so much to the party’s well being.

“If I had not joined the CPP, I don’t think there would be a CPP today and if I abandon the CPP today it would be a disservice to the party and to the ideals and ideology of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah that we are all trying to establish in this country” He stated

By: Samuel Osei/Citifmonline.com