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 resources while seeking to drag the name of President John Dramani Mahama into the debt incurred by Ibrahim Mahama, younger brother of the president who contracted a loan from Merchant Bank.
Deputy Communications Director of the NPP, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, at a press conference on Tuesday, on behalf, 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 Merchant Bank by Ibrahim Mahama.
Mr Buabeng Asamoah explained that SSNIT, which held a 98% stake in struggling 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 stated 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 [individuals involved] are grownups… 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 some journalists were accused of being spin-doctors for jumping to the defense of the young man.
Christened “Hotel Kufuor” by Ghanaians, 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, the facility 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) – to acquire 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:Peacefmonline
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