Accra, March 17, Ghanadot/GNA – The Presidency said on Monday
that although former President John Kufuor formally requested to
use a state bungalow at Ridge in Accra as his offices, he had
been using the facility before he made the request.
A statement signed by Presidential Spokesperson Mahama Ayariga
stated that although President John Atta Mills accepted in
principle the need for his predecessor to have an office,
government had not formally consent to his continued use of the
facility.
Below is the full text of the statement:
“There has been some controversy surrounding Ex-President
Kufuor’s use of an office facility at Ridge prior to any formal
allocation by Government of any facility to him for use as an
office accommodation and the Presidency wishes to set the
records straight.
“Mr. Paul Victor Obeng did have some conversation with members
of the out-gone New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s
transition team during which there was an informal intimation
that the ex-President would like to use the said facility as his
office accommodation.
“Mr. P. V. Obeng in fact promised to discuss the matter with the
President and get them a confirmation and also expressed
optimism that it was an achievable arrangement.
“When P.V Obeng mentioned the request by Ex-President Kufuor to
President Mills, the latter asked Mr. P.V Obeng to tell
ex-President Kufuor to put it in writing. President Mills
accepted in principle the need to make arrangements for the
ex-President to have access to an office facility.
“Subsequently, Mr. P. V Obeng invited Ex-President Kufuor’s team
to two (2) meetings aimed at advancing discussions regarding
their request to use the facility as an office for the
Ex-President but they failed to turn up at all the two (2)
meetings.
“On 11th March 2009 the Office of the President received a
formal request for the use of the facility from the Office of Ex
President Kufuor. This request was dated 5th February 2009.
“It is not in doubt that ex-President Kufuor was already in
occupation of the facility even before the informal and
subsequent formal request to use the facility. Also, the
Government of Ghana has not formally communicated to the office
of Ex-President Kufuor any consent to the continued use of the
facility as his office accommodation.
“In the light of the above facts, the Government finds it
deliberately misleading and malicious, the report of the Daily
Guide of March 16th 2009 that persons close to the Mills
government have politically orchestrated a controversy
surrounding ex-President Kufuor’s use of the office facility
because President Mills has given his blessing to the use of the
facility.
“President Mills accepted the need to make arrangements to
enable the ex-President have access to an office facility and
authorized P.V Obeng to carry through a process that would
ensure that. To avoid controversies such as the one we are
involved in now, the President requested that everything should
be formal and evidenced in writing.
“He did not communicate approval of the use of any specific
building by the ex-President. In any case, the members of
ex-President Kufuor’s team failed to attend all the two (2)
meetings scheduled to discuss the request with Mr. P. V. Obeng.
“The “BROUHAHA” that greeted ex-President Kufuor’s decision to
use the facility at Ridge, where Hon Hawa Yakubu used to reside,
as his office accommodation even before he left office was not
orchestrated by any person close to President Mills’ government
but rather by ex-President Kufuor’s spokesperson, Mr. Frank
Agyekum who presented to the public several conflicting versions
of how ex-President Kufuor came by the office facility.
“He first asserted that they purchased the building and
subsequently said no payment was made and finally claimed it was
given to them by President Mills.
“The issue was not made any easier to comprehend by the fact
that ex-President Kufuor had in fact started using the facility
even before the informal and the subsequent formal request to
the Government of Ghana to use it.
“The Government of Ghana will not orchestrate anything to
embarrass any ex-president for any reason.
“Mr. Koku Anyidoho spoke on Joy FM on this matter but he mainly
read the letter received by Government on 11th March 2009 but
dated 5th February 2009 containing a request from the Office of
ex-President Kufuor to use the said facility as an office
accommodation.
“Mr Koku Anyodoho wanted to establish two facts which were the
subject of controversy during that radio programme.
“First, that Government had received a letter on 11th March 2009
from Ex-President Kufuor’s office making the request; and
second, that no one at the Presidency had formally responded to
the request even though the ex-President was already in
occupation of the facility as his office accommodation and had
indicated in the letter that he had taken a decision to use the
facility even before the expiry of his term of office on 7th
January 2009 as president.
“As the Spokesperson of President Mills I never, prior to the
Daily Guide’s publication, granted an interview to Daily Guide
on this matter, neither have I publicly or privately spoken with
any member of the public or the media about ex-President
Kufuor’s use of the facility. This is contrary to Daily Guide’s
false and obviously maliciously intended mischief of stating in
their story that I and Koku Anyidoho reprimanded the former
President.
“Furthermore, Daily Guide has blatantly lied when it reports
that I claimed that the request came barely a week ago. This is
because prior to this statement I never spoke about this matter
during which I made any revelations as Daily Guide purports.
“I hope that this statement settles the matters of fact
misrepresented in the Daily Guide report in their 16th March
2009 publication.”
GNA
