President John Dramani Mahama has replied persons and groups calling for his impeachment over a Ford Expedition gift he received from a Burkinabe contractor.
According to the president, the allegations are baseless and dared those making them to resort to the courts if they find him complicit in the matter.
President Mahama expressed these sentiments on Wednesday, June 22 during his Greater Accra Region ‘Accounting to the People’ tour at Ashaiman.
There have been widespread allegations that the president’s acceptance of Djibril Kanazoe’s Ford Expedition gift may have constituted a conflict of interest.
The youth wing of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and an individual have already petitioned the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has also called on Parliament to set up a bi-partisan commission to investigate the matter.
But addressing a gathering at Ashaiman, President Mahama said: “If i have been involved in corruption, you have the constitutional means to do what you want to do but when you make baseless rumours and accusations, it won’t win you the presidency.”
He maintained that Ghanaian electorates have grown discerning “and I believe come November 7 they will make their decision”.
He added: “I am convinced that by the grace of almighty God, Inshallah, you have seen the work we have done and they know that given the opportunity we will do more than that.”
‘Laying foundation’
President Mahama said his governance of Ghana is planned in that a first term is to lay the foundation for development just like former presidents Jerry John Rawlings, John Agyekum Kufuor and the later Professor John Atta Mills did.
He stressed that all these leaders bar the late Mills were given two terms.
Even Prof Mills, he said, would have been given two terms “if he had survived [and] if God had not called him”.
“I have done one term and I have been resolving the challenges I inherited.
“For the first term in office, I was tied down in court for almost one year. We have been faced with the power crisis that I have been dealing with.”
In effect, the president called for the support of the people to give him a second term.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana