Thank you for cutting my jail term – Abuga Pele to Akufo-Addo

“Thank God for my release, I thank the president and I thank the people of Nakolo, I thank all those who were instrumental in getting me out of prison,” he said to a crowd in his hometown on Saturday, August 21.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addogranted him a presidential pardon after he was taken ill at the Nsawam Maximum Security Prison, from where he was transferred to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and admitted to the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the hospital.

The former National Democratic Congress(NDC) MP was sentenced to six-year imprisonment by an Accra High Court in 2018 for causing financial loss to the state while National Coordinator of the defunct Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).

He was said to have acted in a manner that resulted in the loss of GH¢4.1 million by the government after businessman Phillip Akpeena Assibit had made false claims that he had secured a $65-million World Bank funding for the creation of one million jobs for the youth.

Abuga Pele was found guilty on two counts of abetment of fraud and five counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state.

He received six years for abetment of fraud and four years for willfully causing financial loss to the state, both to be served concurrently.

Mr Abuga Pele further stated that he was a head coach of a football team in the prison after he was jailed for causing financial loss to the state.

While in prison, he said, he also served as a headmaster of a school.

He also believes that he was sent there to learn and not to be punished.

“If I have not said anything concerning my incarceration or what led to it or what the outcome has been, it is because the truth as I have said often will surely come out one day.

“Finally I want to add that I was not incarcerated, I was not put in prison, you are only put in prison if your mind accepts or allows it. I was taken there to learn, the. People in prisons are my younger brothers, my sisters and my fathers, some of them needed help maybe God sent me there to help them. I became the headmaster of the school that produced graduates.

“I was a coach for the young football team.”