Former presidential staffer, Kojo Adu Asare has accused President Akufo-Addo of “bad faith” over the controversy generated by former President Mahama’s request to remain in a state bungalow after the expiration of his tenure in office.

The former president has requested to keep his Cantonments official residence as part of his retirement package – a request which has attracted widespread criticism from a section of the public who believe the move violates the Transition Act.

In an interview with Montie FM in Accra, Mr Adu Asare said Mr Mahama’s request was deliberately leaked to the media to portray him as a villain in the eyes of Ghanaians.

According to the former Adentan MP, the decision to permit Mr Mahama to stay in that bungalow was arrived at after both men had a one-on-one meeting, before it was followed up with an official request.

“And right after that, government officials decided to leak details of the meeting to the media to the extent that the request letter was splashed on Facebook.

“For me, that was the handy-work of the president and his appointees. It was deliberately done to incite public outrage against Mr Mahama,” he added.

Mr Adu Asare insists the letter was purposely leaked to divert public attention from President Akufo-Addo’s plagiarism scandal.

“It was a rescue mission they embarked upon and they have succeeded in doing that. They wanted to divert attention of the public from the president’s gaffe at his inaugural speech,” he added.

Meanwhile, the former president has rescinded his request to keep that official state bungalow in question.

In a statement addressed to the new government on Tuesday, Mr Mahama said, he found it important to move out of the building to avoid marring the spirit of cooperation between the two sides of the transition teams.