Claims my credibility to fight corruption is in tatters ‘thoughtless loose talk’ – Akufo-Addo to critics

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has taken strong exception to comments by anti-graft activists who have questioned his credibility in fighting corruption following the retirement of Daniel Yaw Domelevo as Auditor-General.

The coerced removal of Mr. Domelevo from office has been on the table of many anti-corruption crusaders and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who say the President’s decision makes a mockery of his much-touted aversion to corruption.

In a statement to respond to Mr. Domelevo and CSOs supporters, Nana Akufo-Addo particularly referred to some recent pronouncements made by the co-founder and Executive Director of Afrobarometer, Prof. Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi for his strong condemnation of the government’s commitment to tackling the corruption menace.

Mr. Gyimah-Boadi waded into the development involving Mr. Domelevo saying “as for the President’s credibility in terms of anti-corruption, I am afraid to say it is in tatters. It has been in tatters for a while but this puts a nail in the coffin. I see Domelevo as a victim of well-orchestrated actions by individuals who are [government] officials and by state institutions,”.

But President Akufo-Addo has not taken the assertion lightly.

In response, President Akufo categorically said Mr. Gyimah-Boadi’s statements were without any form of critical and practical reasoning.

“It is, thus, very disappointing to hear a very senior and otherwise distinguished member of civil society make such loose and thoughtless statements like the President’s credibility on anti-corruption is in ‘tatters’ and ‘has been in tatters for a while, and that the compulsory retirement of Mr. Domelevo puts the nail in the coffin of the President’s credibility. Such statements are not based on facts and driven likely by emotions.”

“The fact is that the President’s credibility on anti-corruption is unmatched and no amount of misconceived opinions can change that”, Nana Addo insisted.

Even more so, the office of the President berated the CSOs for their deafening silence on what the President deems as “unacceptable and unconscionable conduct” of Mr. Domelevo whilst in office.

“It is noteworthy that no sound of caution or condemnation was heard from you or your colleagues in civil society when Mr. Domelevo was using his office to engage in such unacceptable and unconscionable conduct. Indeed, a less charitable perspective would be that this was a patent abuse of office. Yet, there was no chatter from our friends of Civil Society,” the statement added.

The President however cleared the air that “never had he held the view that the work of Mr. Domelevo was embarrassing his government”.