Defence Minister-designate, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah has beaten a hasty retreat over a social media post about claims of illegal encroachment attempt on Ghana International School (GIS) lands at Cantonments in Accra by an unnamed businessman.
According to Dr. Edward Boamah, he had no evidence to buttress his claims as at the time of the allegations.
Taking his turn before the Appointments Committee on Tuesday, Dr. Boamah who had also implicated the then New Patriotic Party government in the said land grab insisted that he should have not also accused the government.
For the purposes of today’s vetting, if it is the case that the person was a bold Ghanaian investor, without any authorization decided to invade part of GIS’s lands, then I should not have linked the NPP to it.”
Pushed further for evidence by the Efutu MP, Alexander Afenyo-Markin and Member of the Vetting Committee, the Director of IT and Elections for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) could not justify his empty allegations any longer.
He continued “…Even when your party is in government it is very difficult, considering the circumstances at the time, was I supposed to call the Honorable Lands Minister then or the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission or the Land Title Registry? who was I to call to have a fair response? The circumstantial evidence was strong; however, if you want hard accidence no”.
The Effutu Legislator reminded Dr. Boamah to have sought for the information under the Right to Information Law but the nominee insisted that he has not read the RTI law, although the law has its own issues.
Dr. Boamah explained the term looting as “that practice which today has lead my civil servants trekking longer distances to ministries to work because politicians under the guise of policies sell state lands to individuals… ”
The Defence Minister-designate is quoted to have condemned the audacity of the encroachers, labelling them as “Liberal Land Looters,” and questioned the absence of moral integrity and compassion in their actions.
“Where is compassion? What has happened to the moral compass? Where has good judgment been dumped?” he asked, denouncing the complete disregard for decency shown by the encroachers.
He is again reported to have stated “I was in denial when I heard the despicable act of land looters extending their reach around 2 a.m. to illegally and criminally possess a parcel of land that belongs to Ghana International School (GIS)”.