Contrary to the defence by some members of the governing NPP claiming that Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Health Minister did not lie before the nine-member parliamentary ad-hoc committee, a private legal practitioner has listed some instances that explain that the minister lied under oath before the committee and should be held for perjury.
According to Martin Kpebu, in Kwaku Agyeman-Manu’s quest to get the country some vaccines, it is established that he dealt to some intermediaries from Dubai and yet he doesn’t know whether or not they were paid, then the minister was not serious.
Digging into the report of the nine-member ad hoc committee, Lawyer Kpebu stated that, when the vaccines which are in short supply were not delivered in two weeks, the contract should have been terminated immediately but the minister chose “to inform the Sheikh to withdraw and the Sheikh wrote to withdraw from the agreement, which is another lie because subsequently on July 25, when the ministry’s lawyer wrote to the Sheikh’s office that when will they have the money back, the Sheikh’s office said when they receive a formal notice of termination…”
He explained on Joy FM, Thursday, August 12, in an interview that, “if he [Agyeman-Manu] says the Sheikh himself terminated the agreement on July 14, how come on July 25, the letter that is circulating asked when can we get our money, then the Sheikh says when you present a formal notice of termination.
“So, an agreement that, the Sheikh terminated on 14, how can he be asking for another termination on July 25?” Lawyer Kpebu quizzed.
He added, “this thing is getting murkier and murkier. Look, the Sheikh has failed, the minister has been nailed, no amount of chicanery will save the minister. This chicanery is not getting anywhere; this is a done deal. This case is beyond redemption, it’s bad, Mr Agyeman-Manu just has to go and then of course the finance minister.”
The private legal practitioner believes that President Akufo-Addo’s claim that the Minister of Health is receiving slaps from Ghanaians is not something that can guarantee that the minister won’t be sacked by the president.
He indicated that, the continuous stay in office of the minister will clearly send a signal that no Ghanaian is fit to hold the minister’s position.
“For each day Mr Agyeman-Manu occupies this position, then the implication is that in Ghana, he is our best talent for that position notwithstanding all of the embarrassment, the mistakes and that if you take away Mr Agyeman-Manu, there is no better person to fit in, that’s the meaning.
“So, all 32 million of us there is no other person who can do as much as Mr Agyeman-Manu [is doing] or in other words, the rest of us are worst than Mr Agyeman-Manu, so please he should stay there and that cannot be,” Lawyer Martin Kpebu stressed.
