Bismarck Tawiah Boateng
BISMARCK TAWIAH Boateng aka Otafirigya, Eastern Regional chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has threatened to drag Western Publications Limited – publishers of DAILY GUIDE – and Prof Kwesi Botchwey, an NDC stalwart, to court for defamation.
According to Mr Tawiah Boateng, the Kwesi Botchwey Committee report has not been released and therefore the publication against him was false and is going to court to seek redress.
“I am taking DAILY GUIDE to court to indicate the portion of the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee report that I have pocketed GH¢1 million. I have directed my lawyers to file a suit against the newspaper,’ Tawiah Boateng hinted.
In its last Tuesday’s edition, quoted a portion of the Botchwey report that states, “Eastern Regional Chairman is alleged to be keeping some GH¢1 million meant for campaign funding, the 65-page Executive Summary of the 455-page report – which the NDC has kept like a state secret – reveals on Page 28.”
According to the report, the party must probe the Eastern Regional chairman of the NDC over some GH¢1 million meant for campaign. The NDC launched the ‘Agenda 50-50’ project to share the votes equally with the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the region during the 2016 general election.
Mr. Boateng, who has been going on various radio networks across the country over the missing cash in reaction to the publication, said the campaign in the region was managed by the regional campaign coordinator and there was no way such an amount would have come to him.
“Have you seen the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee report yourself? I have not seen it neither my regional executives. So if the report is with the national executives, how did DAILY GUIDE get the report to publish?” Mr Tawiah Boateng wondered.
He said the newspaper would have to prove in court that he actually received the said money, adding that, the money that was made available to the region was GH¢15,000, and was brought by the Director of the party’s Elections, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo. The regional chairman insisted that that money was handed over to the regional Treasurer.
“The money was brought in by Samuel Ofosu Ampofo; it was GH¢15,000 and was instantly handed over to Mr. Krah, the Treasurer. So I am saying it on authority that I have not kept any money and in my 53 years, I have not kept GH¢1 million,” Mr Bismarck Tawiah Boateng said.
He maintained that he did not take part in any of the fund raisings for the party, saying that the only money brought to him had been accounted to the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee – that was set up to investigate why the NDC, led by then President John Dramani Mahama, was embarrassingly defeated in last year’s polls.
“They can check with the committee that came to meet us. It was the former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho, with his team that came to meet us, and we told them everything. So I am saying it on authority that I have not kept any money,” he stressed.
Mr Tawiah Boateng also denied being given any contract under Mahama’s administration.
Press Statement
A press statement authored by the regional secretary, Mark Oliver-Kevor, indicated that the publication, purporting to be a portion of the Kwesi Botchwey Committee’s report – which allegedly indicts the Eastern Regional chairman for “pocketing money” meant for the campaign – is fictitious, fabricated and can simply be described as a bogus reportage.
“We accordingly urge the rank and file of the great NDC party in particular, and the entire Ghanaian populace in general, to disregard the publication and treat it with utmost contempt. Whiles the secretariat respects our chairman’s personal right to initiate a legal action against Western Media Publications (owners of Daily Guide) if he so wishes, we want to state on record that the said publication is false and no such events occurred,” the statement claimed.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Koforidua