Zita Okaikoi
Wife of the Nii Lante Bannerman, New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Odododiodioo, Victoria Naana Gyetuah Bannerman has denied claims she is NDC.
It follows claims by former Minister of Information under the late President Mills, Zita Benson formerly Zita Okaikoi to the effect that Bannerman’s wife is a member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) during an interview on Citi TV’s Breakfast Daily Programme Thursday morning.
This was when she was giving her own account of recent clashes in the constituency.
In her narrative, Zita claimed that Victoria Bannerman is not just a member of the NDC but that she was also present at Blue Gate, the venue where the said incident took place and had wanted to exchange pleasantries with the incumbent Member of Parliament for Odododiodioo when the fight broke out.
In a statement, an obviously unhappy Mrs Bannerman noted “I want to state categorically and emphatically that the narrative by the said Zita Benson is not just malicious falsehood, but a deliberate attempt to drag my name and reputation in the mud.”
“From the above, I am very convinced that Zita lacks credibility if she is the same person who once served as Minister of Information under the late President Mills who supervised the payment of a whopping amount of ₵1.6billion on Christmas hampers for journalists”, she noted.
She thus asked the general public to ignore what she described as frivolous and fictitious narrative by the said Zita Benson and to as it were “treat it with the contempt it so deserves.”
Facts
That, she said was because “I was with my husband, the NPP parliamentary candidate for Odododiodioo, Nii Lante Bannerman and some constituency executives of the party at the Resurrection Power New Generation Church, Bortianor to worship with the President of the Republic on the said day”, insisting “I was therefore nowhere near Odododiodioo and could not have been present at the said location on the said day and time.”
“Again, I want to put on record that I am a staunch NPP supporter and an ardent believer of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition out of which the NPP and its ideology was born. For her information, I was born into an NPP family and cannot see myself turning coat to support another political party let alone the NDC, a party born out of violence and lies”, she emphasised.
Knowing the Omni Media Group of which Citi TV is one of its leading brands and the Breakfast Daily show a big platform, she could not but noted with emphasis “so people like Zita who lack credibility should not be entertained to put the station in bad light.”
“I once again entreat all well-meaning Ghanaians to ignore the false narrative by the said Zita Benson and to treat it with the contempt it so deserves”, she said.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu