Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has denied having a second wife, let alone know a lady by the name Ramatu as being forced on him through opposition NDC propaganda.
It follows speculations by members of the opposition NDC that the Vice President was having a second wife and was keeping it away from the public.
It all started by the newly elected and sworn in Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, on January 7, 2021 during the swearing in of President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia after their re-election.
Whether by fault or default, the Speaker mentioned the name Ramatu instead of Samira when he was introducing the wife of the Vice President, thereby raising eyebrows.
Even though he later apologised and corrected the name by introducing Samira Bawumia, the seeming murmurings that accompanied it gave room for suspicion and speculation, especially on various social media platforms, and were pushed heavily by the NDC elements.
The speculation and its accompanying mischief came to a crescendo when President Akufo-Addo presented the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) to Parliament last Monday when Second Lady Bawumia was this time around introduced by the Speaker correctly.
Immediately the Speaker introduced Second Lady Bawumia as having attended the special programme, the NDC MPs mischievously started chanting the name Ramatu, saying cynically that “we want Ramatu!”
On Friday evening, Dr. Gideon Boako, spokesperson to the Vice President, asked Ghanaians to ignore the Ramatu rumours, describing it as a fabricated story.
“The office of the Vice-President wishes to inform the general public that the Vice-President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has never met or seen this purported Ramatu, let alone take her as a wife,” Dr. Boako’s statement said.
The statement said “she (Ramatu) is a figment of the imagination of people trying hard to tarnish the image of the Vice President for their own purposes,” adding, “the Vice President has only one wife, his dear Samira Bawumia and they have been married for 17 years even though his religion permits him to marry up to four wives.”
The Office of the Vice President has since asked the public to as it were “ignore the propaganda and deliberate falsehood.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent