Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has chastised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for failing to provide any evidential value and seeking to drag the name of President John Dramani Mahama into a bad debt incurred by Ibrahim Mahama, junior brother of the President after he contracted a loan from Merchant bank.
Deputy Communications Director of the NPP, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, at a press conference he addressed on Tuesday, on behalf of the party, alleged that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), has been forced by President Mahama to use funds of suffering Ghanaian workers to retire a GH�57.2 million debt owed by Ibrahim Mahama, to the struggling Ghanaian bank.
Mr Buabeng Asamoah explained that SSNIT, which held a 98% stake in Merchant Bank, in August this year, sold 75% of its stake to South African Bank, First Rand. At the time of the sale, Merchant Bank was reeling under some GH�330 million debt, with the President's brother being the largest debtor, contributing 19.2% of Merchant Bank�s total indebtedness.
But speaking to the issue on Peace FM�s morning show �Kokrokoo�, the seasoned journalist opined that the NPPs press conference was simply an attempt to subject President Mahama to public ridicule, by associating him to the transaction.
He insisted that it was inappropriate for the NPP to associate the president to a business which was solely transacted by his brother
�I don�t see the basis for which the President should be dragged into this especially when the relations are grown ups...This is inappropriate; this aspect of the statement and I am being charitable. It�s inappropriate and it looks like it is an attempt to drag in the President into his brother�s business�I am not too sure that this is a reflection of what Nana Akufo Addo would want to be said in the name of his party and campaign and I even believe that they (Merchant Bank/Ibrahim) have not been properly or well researched�i'm not sure the Bank of Ghana has given the go-ahead...,� Kweku Baako said.
It would be recalled in 2005, when John Kufuor, son of then President J.A. Kufuor put together a consortium of Banks led by Prudential Bank to finance a Hotel project, (African Regent Hotel), Kweku Baako and a couple of other journalists were accused of being spin-doctors for jumping to the defense of the youngman and taking it upon themselves to go behind the news and feed Ghanaians with the bare facts.
Christened �Hotel Kufuor� because of the alleged involvement of the first family in its purchase with the suspicion that then President Kufuor was the real owner of the hotel and that he simply used his eldest son to front for him, it brought about a political slugfest between the NPP and the opposition NDC.
But for Mr Baako, if he saw nothing wrong with Chief Kufuor establishing a company, the Airport West Hospitality Company Limited(AWHCL), as a VEHICLE for the acquisition of a hotel, then equally the NPP�s assertions at the press conference should be treated with contempt until the party makes available substantial evidence to back its claim.
�... For me consistency is my watch word here. It is important to note that when Ibrahim Mahama secured the loan from the bank his brother (President Mahama) was in opposition at the time, so it will not be fair to link him to his brother's predicaments�What was bad yesterday is also wrong today. I jumped to the defense of Chief Kufuor during the hotel Kufuor saga and I will do same today, especially when there is nothing of evidential value,� Kweku Baako said.
The newspaper editor however pointed that the NPP can saddle President Mahama with the failed STX Korea Housing Project.
Source: Rebecca Addo-Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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