‘Apologize for statement on GPRTU buses’-MASLOC to Mahama

The Chief Executive Officer for the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre, is challenging former President Mahama to provide list of NPP Chairmen who benefitted from his purported distribution of buses meant for members of GPRTU or apologize.

The NDC flagbearer accused the Akufo-Addo government of diverting 33-seater buses he procured for the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) before exiting power, to its party chairmen.

Speaking in an interview on Woezor TV, in Cape Coast at the weekend, John Mahama served notice he’ll pursue all GPRTU buses procured by his government that have been appropriated by chairmen of the ruling NPP when he wins power.

But speaking at a press conference in Kumasi, MASLOC Boss, Stephen Amoah said the claims are not true.

“We are all human beings and can make mistakes, I am therefore urging the former President John Mahama to come out without any debate and apologize to the sitting President, the MASLOC executives and Ghanaians that he made a mistake, then we can draw a curtain on this issue.

“If not, he (Mahama) should provide the names of all the NPP Chairmen who took the buses and I will also publish the list of all the 83 GPRTU beneficiaries of our buses.” He said.

He accuses the Mahama administration of inflating the prices of the buses to the extent that the beneficiaries could not afford them.

Stephen Amoah said it took President Akufo-Addo to reduce the prices by about 52 percent to enable 83 out of the 100 buses to be taken by the GPRTU.

“The cost of the 100 buses was GHc 44, 556.  They were 33-seater Isuzu buses with 4cc engine capacity instead of 6cc. However, it was the NPP government that had to pay the outrageous prices of these buses. It has been proven beyond doubt by both the GPRTU and MASLOC as key stakeholder institutions, that the prices of the said buses and saloon cars were remarkably inflated.” He explained.

“This led the public to start buying some of the cars as we could not have allowed the cars go rotten and increased the cost that the state would have otherwise incurred. A meeting was held at the presidency among MASLOC, GPRTU, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trade. The president then reduced the prices by about 52% to enable the GPRTU to procure the buses. 83 out of the 100 buses were taken by the GPRTU. Distributions per region and information on each beneficiary can be published if need be.” He added.