The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has called on Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, to publicly disclose the identity of the Member of Parliament who was allegedly paid to suppress media reports on the National Service Authority (NSA) ghost names scandal.

Braimah’s demand follows revelations by Dr. Ayine during an update on the ongoing investigations into the fraudulent payroll scheme.

The Attorney General revealed that former NSA Director General, Osei Assibey Antwi, had paid a sitting MP to prevent media coverage of the scandal, which involved the illegal inclusion of ghost names on the payroll.

He further confirmed that significant progress had been made in exposing corruption within the scheme.

Reacting to the disclosure in a Facebook post, Braimah underscored the need for transparency in the matter, stating:

“We call on the Attorney General (AG) to name the said MP to whom money was given to kill the story. Doing so will be in the interest of transparency and also to protect the reputation of Parliament.”

The NSA ghost names scandal is a significant corruption case involving the National Service Authority (NSA) in Ghana.

Investigations revealed that 81,885 ghost names—nonexistent individuals—were fraudulently added to the payroll. This allowed corrupt officials to siphon millions of Ghanaian cedis meant for legitimate service personnel. The scheme involved fake index numbers and even included individuals over 80 years old.

The scandal came to light after an exposé by The Fourth Estate in November 2024, which uncovered systemic abuse dating back to 2017.