Afia Pokuaa, a Ghanaian media personality, has fired the former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, after she was accused of theft and willfully causing financial loss to the state.
The Ghanaian journalist commonly known as Vim Lady emphasised that Gifty Oware-Mensah is innocent until proven guilty, but the national service scandal is disgusting.
According to Afia Pokua, the charges against Gifty Oware-Mensah are not small charges, and NPP communicators will find it difficult to justify them.
Speaking on her show, shared on Instagram, Afia Pokuaa stated, “The national service scandal is disgusting. The charge against her is stealing, and that is not a small charge. Even the NPP gurus can not justify it. She should go and answer for herself in court. It just doesn’t make sense, and I don’t know any evidence she would use to justify herself… This is messed up”
“For her name to be attached to such a case is bad, but nobody should justify this. As I earlier said, innocent until proven guilty, so she should go and prove herself in court.
“Most of the people NPP gave appointments are questionable. She even gave a scholarship to her husband; meanwhile, some poor people genuinely wanted the scholarship. Whether she is guilty or not, this is unquestionable and a complete conflict of interest”, she added.
Afia Pokua’s comment comes on the heels of Gifty Oware-Mensah, who is a Deputy Director-General of the National Service Authority, has been charged with stealing and willfully causing financial loss to the state.
The Attorney-General’s Department alleged Gifty Oware-Mensah misappropriated a total of GH¢38,458,248.87 between February 2022 and March 2024, overseeing finance, audit, and procurement at the NSA.
According to prosecutors, she dishonestly transferred GH¢31.5 million from a loan facility meant to support National Service Personnel into her private company accounts.
The said money was under the pretext of supplying goods on a hire-purchase basis; however, investigation revealed no such goods were supplied, and the names used to secure the loan were ghost names from the NSA’s internal system.
AG also alleged, “Out of the money received, the accused transferred GH¢22,925,518,69 to Amaecom Global Company of which she was a director, and the remaining amount to three other companies.”
Gifty Oware-Mensah’s charges include “Stealing GH¢31,502,091.40 belonging to the National Service Authority. Willfully causing financial loss to the state through the fake hire-purchase arrangement, Abuse of public office for personal gain and Money laundering through the transfer of funds into personal and affiliated accounts”.
Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Justice Srem-Sai has revealed the High Court is yet to fix a date for former NSS boss, Gifty Oware-Mensah, to appear before the court.
Justice Srem-Sai made this known when he was spotted walking away from the High Court Complex.
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