Abuga Pele says he initially rejected the GYEEDA job, because according to him, he felt he should have been made a Minister over the current Minority Chief Whip and Asewase member of Parliament, the honorable Muntaka.
Abuga Pele explains why he initially rejected the GYEEDA job.
The former Chiana-Paga MP added that former President Mills was thrilled over his successful organization of the Africa Hockey Tournament of which he led the Local organizing Committee.
He added that President Mills then instructed the Sport Minister at the time, the Honorable Muntaka
to make three offers for him to choose one of them and that Muntaka actually gave him the chance to choose one of three offers, but he declined to even take one of them.
Abuga Pele state the reasons for initially rejecting the offer.
The reasons, the former jailed GYEEDA boss said was that he felt he had the capacity to manage the sports Ministry than the honorable Muntaka. He further added that he felt it will be sort of a demotion for him to be working under a ministry superintended over by Muntaka.
“I was the chairman of LOC which organized the Africa Hockey Tournament. In fact at the end of the tournament, the late president, Prof. Mills was so impressed that he wrote a personal recommendation letter to me and the Egyptian federation gave me an award and African Federation gave me an Award too for organizing the best ever hockey tournament in Africa so after that, I think that the president felt he should continue to use my talent.
So I was there one day when Hon. Mintaka then the Minister for Youth and Sports invited me to the Ministry in the evening around 5. By then, they had closed so he was with the Deputy, invited me to the Deputy’s office and they had put 2 seats in front of the Minister’s desk and they sat on the visitor’s chairs and asked me to sit there. I was a bit taken aback. I was wondering what that whole drama was about but eventually I sat down. Then they said Prof. said they should offer me 3 options for me to work there as the head. They wanted me to either be National Youth Council Head, Winneba Sports College head or National Youth Employment Program head.”
The former stated this during an interview on A1 Radio in Bolgatanga.
He further indicated that “So after a few seconds of deep thinking, I declined because I felt if they wanted to use me, they could have made me a minister because I was the spokesperson for sports all the period that I was in Parliament. So if they wanted to use me, the least they could do is to use me in the Sports Ministry. But to invite me to take a department under the ministry while you put somebody there who probably was not too actively involved in sports (was, to me, unfair). I’m not saying he doesn’t know anything in sports but I think that he was not actively participating in it. I was the key person. I found it a bit unfair so I declined”.
Abuga Pele said Muntaka had to beg him to accept the GYEEDA Job.
The honorable Abuga Pele revealed that Muntaka had to beg him to accept the offer, stating that the President said he should do all his possible best to persuaded him to accept the offer.
“When I declined, Hon. Muntaka virtually went on his knees and said the president said he knew I would decline so he should appeal to me to accept it so I said ‘ok (but) I don’t know any of these areas of you’ve mentioned. I’ve never worked there. I don’t have any experience with them. Of course, I have been a sportsman and I have been actively involved in sports administration but I’m not aware of what’s going on there so it’s better I don’t take something that I don’t know anything about’.
Business magnate Lesken of Lesken enterprise in Bolgatanga dead.
He added that he had to take the offer reluctantly and that is how he got into GYEEDA.
Abuga Pele: I still admire Manasseh Awuni as a Journalist, though he led me to be jailed.
The former boss of defunct GYEEDA, Mr. Abuga Pele has stated that he still admire the works of journalist Manasseh Awuni. He said though the investigative reports of Awuni led to him be jailed, he still have great respect for the Journalist.
“Everything was going on well. To my amazement, they said there was an investigation set up. I cooperated very well with Manasseh and I still admire him as a journalist. He came, and I gave him all the cooperation because by then, I was also doing my private investigation on some of my deputies who had forged signatures and withdrawn monies. I had done my investigations and recommended that they should be prosecuted and sacked. So, I antagonized a lot of people both at the ministry and at my level. I even invited the audit service to audit all the offices in the country. So, I was surprised that they said they had set up a committee to investigate GYEEDA scandal.”
He said he suspected a foul and sinister play at him by the people he was working with at the Ministry.
“The memo was not crafted by me; it was crafted by my finance officer who was employed by the ministry because they say he is qualified. All the senior officers I was dumped on them, I didn’t recruit them. So why would I be holding in doubt the work they do and submit to me.”
“So, I would look through if it sounds reasonable am not a finance man even though I was a tax man but it is not enough. The Finance Officer wrote the memo and said it was okay. I minuted for your attention and he took it to the ministry. He read through, gave it to his Chief Director, gave it to his Auditor, they approved and he said pay him; we paid. So am still to come to terms with why I was prosecuted.”
