A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said even though he understands the frustrations of persons who lost their jobs in the banking crisis, government was left with no other choice.

Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko in a long post on Facebook said, the inevitability of the collapse of the banks caused by years of neglect, required that the government had to intervene to protect depositors.

The 11.5 billion cedis applied by government to save depositors, he said, is the money that would have been well spent on the NPP’s priority projects.

“This is GH¢11.2 billion that could have fixed our roads, schools, drains, health centres, etc. Spare a thought for this Govt for being forced by circumstances not of its own making to spend good money not on its own priority programmes but on others’ negligence and alleged crimes,” he wrote.

Mr Otchere-Darko said the point must be made that “the National Democratic Congress messed up the Banking system. They led the Banking sector to near collapse by creating a laxed system which allowed various unconventional practices in the sector. It is this which is being fixed by the New Patriotic Party and at great cost to you, the taxpayers! Know who to blame and know who to praise!

He listed a litany of infractions which culminated in the situation where it became untenable for the banks to be left in the state in which they were.

Read here the full article and the arguments made by the private legal practitioner.

In our earlier publication, we inaccurately headlined the article but have since corrected it.