Sipa Yankey Flies Out

Information reaching the Daily Guide newspaper indicates that Dr. George Adjah-Sipa Yankey, immediate past Minister of Health and a recipient of the Mabey & Johnson largesse, has flown out of the country as the Commission on Human rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) commences its investigations into the scandal.

Dr Yankey is said to have left for the United Kingdom on Monday night to, as it were, work on his accounting records in view of the upcoming CHRAJ investigations, Daily Guide has learnt. A former Director of Legal and International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance, he is said to have received about £15,000 in his Midland Bank account in Hill Street, London W1, from Mabey and Johnson.

The former Health Minister is particularly seeking his bank statement in the past 15-years but has reportedly been assured of getting five years’ statement, a source has told Daily Guide.With CHRAJ putting finishing touches to its probing of the Mabey & Johnson bribery saga as per the President’s directive, Dr. Yankey is said to be tying all possible loose ends in readiness.

His radio station talks about his involvement or otherwise in the debacle is said to have ruffled feathers at the Castle.After his widely publicized denial, he contradicted himself when in a radio programme in Kumasi, he recalled how he declined the Mabey & Johnson offer but was impressed upon to donate the largesse to a charity if he did not want it.

By the foregone, he sent tongues wagging about his sincerity against the back drop of his previous position.Dr. Sipa-Yankey’s handling of the subject since his name dropped as one of the beneficiaries has been anything but impressive, party sources told Daily Guide.

He attributed his decision to resign to a desire to shield the President from the public flak which was on the ascendancy since the saga broke.

That he was able to travel out when Stephen Asamoah-Boateng was denied such privilege has prompted questions about the existence of selective justice in the country.Mabey and Johnson, the British bridge construction firm with tentacles across the world, bribed a number of public officials in the country in a manner which has put Ghana on the spotlight, albeit negatively.

The President has already nominated Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor as Health Minister, sealing all hopes of the return of Dr. Sipa Yankey to the ministerial fold.

Source: Daily guide