Ghanaian actor John Dumelo says he bought the Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle seized from him by the government from a dealer and could not have known that it was a state vehicle at the time of purchase. The actor was part of some Ghanaians found to have in their possession official state vehicles which were a part of the presidential pool. The vehicle was retrieved at a mechanics shop where it was supposed to undergo repainting.
The New Patriotic Party on the assumption of office made it known that some state vehicles at the presidency could not be accounted for. A retrieval task force was set up to look for the cars.
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According to the Supervisor of the Task Force on the Retrieval of State Assets Kwame Baffoe, after retrieving the car, Mr. Dumelo said it was given to him by former First Lady Lordina Mahama although he had no documents to prove that.
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Speaking in an interview on JoyFM John Dumelo said he bought the vehicle from somebody but did not hesitate to give it to the task force when they said it belonged to the government. He continued that he bought a new car after it was seized, "‘To hell with it’, I bought myself a new car and moved on.â€
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Questions, however, remain though as to why the actor did not know the vehicle he claimed to have bought belonged to the state since it is a regular procedure for vehicle buyers in Ghana to verify current owners at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) before completing the purchase. There was another opportunity as well to verify the owner of the vehicle during the process to change owners at the DVLA, that is if he did that before attempting to repaint the car.
John Dumelo was a keen supporter of the National Democratic Congress during the 2016 general elections. there have been rumours that he would be contesting the national youth organizer position of the party.
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primenewsghana.com/Ghana News