Sputnik V scandal: Akufo-Addo must show balls in this fight

Gabriella Tetteh speaks for the NDC

• Pressure continues to mount on Kwaku Agyeman-Manu to resign

• He has been involved in controversies surrounding the purchase of vaccines for the country

• NDC communicator Gabriella Tetteh says president should show more balls on the issue

National Democratic Congress communications team member Gabriella Tetteh challenged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to take drastic action on the issue of the controversial Sputnik V vaccine purchase.

She insists that the President should show courage to address the concerns raised and therefore remove the Minister of Health from his job, as has happened in other parts of the world where authorities like were appalling to him.

It will be recalled that the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, appeared before an ad hoc committee formed by Parliament to examine the controversial purchase of some 3.4 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine for the country.

The nine-member non-partisan committee found, among other things, that the minister had violated procurement processes and lied under oath.

Since then, there have been many calls for Kwaku Agyeman-Manu to step down as investigations continue.

Adding her voice to calls while speaking on the Good Morning Ghana show on Metro TV and monitored by GhanaWeb, the NDC communicator explained that there have been too many cases that should have already caused the president to act.

“WHO has signaled to countries why we should not use intermediaries in purchasing vaccines; they’ve already pointed out the warnings to us, and yet we didn’t heed those warnings and went ahead and made our own decisions. It [Kwaku Agyeman-Manu] told the Committee that he was not aware of any payments being made, but it turned out that they had paid $ 2,850,000 out of $ 5,700,000 and there are just too many issues around of this purchase of Sputnik V.

“Like I said, I’m really sorry he ended up in this situation, but in more serious countries health ministers have been jailed for the way they handled this whole situation. We have seen sacked health ministers – the South African health minister is one example, and I think President Akufo-Addo needs to show some balls and show that he is genuinely interested in helping us fight this , for the health and safety of all Ghanaians, ”she explained.