General News of Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Source: The Herald

Dr. Anane demands Akufo-Addo's medical records

The rift in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is getting ridiculously dirty and will get dirtier in the coming days as the party’s 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, will be forced through a court action to make public his local and international medical records for a very significant point to be made.

This is one of the demands that will be pushed by the NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Nhyiaso, Dr. Richard Wilfred Anane, who is angered by the utterances of loud-mouthed MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, that he and ex-Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Kwadwo Mpiani, are planning to kill Nana Addo with poison.

In the same suit, Mr. Ken Agyapong will be ordered to produce his local and international medical records as well.

Dr. Anane, a key member of the Alan John Kwadwo Kyeremanten campaign, said the medical reports of the two individuals were to vindicate him in the event that Nana Addo or Ken Agyapong dies mysteriously.

But a member of Nana Addo’s Communications team, Hopeson Adorye, dared Dr. Anane to go ahead and file a case in court demanding the medical records, because Nana Addo is ready to face him in court.

To Mr. Adorye, Dr. Anane has no moral right to be talking having disgraced Ghana, by going to have sex and impregnating a woman while on international HIV/AIDS assignment as Health Minister in the Kufuor regime.

Recently, Dr. Anane has suggested that Kennedy Agyapong has a mental problem since his outburst that he and Kwadwo Mpiani want to poison Nana Addo.

Inside the NPP party, there has been claims that Nana Addo has a kidney problem and even recently went abroad for medical treatment. During the Election Petition hearing at the Supreme Court, Nana Addo had to abandon the case and travel abroad for medical treatment.

He was reported to have collapsed at home once and rushed to Akai House medical facility at Osu in Accra. He was later transferred to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for treatment, from where he begged the nine Supreme Court Justices to allow him travel to London for medical treatment.

The NPP MP argued on an Accra-based radio station, Montie FM, that when the records are made available to the court, they would be kept for the future, so that in the unlikely event that something happens to any of them, it could be verified that indeed, whatever happened was natural or unnatural.

“I said that issue will end in court. The reason why I am saying this is that me, I was trained as a doctor and everyone knows that by training, every doctor will wish to be blessed with knowledge so that he can save lives. No doctor is trained to kill people; Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani is a professional banker, Kwadwo Mpiani as a banker, his job deals with money and so a banker and a doctor, why will anyone tag us as assassins?

He went on that I “don’t want to pay attention to him [Ken], but with what he said, I want that issue to go to court and it will not only go to court but, as a doctor; I will demand in court, Nana Akufo-Addo’s medical records, both local and international be produced.

Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, his medical records both locally and internationally. So that in future, in the unlikely event that something happens to them, we can refer to their medical records as a baseline, so that it can be said to be natural or unnatural. You don’t just mischievously put words in people’s mouth.”

Dr. Anane explained that “as a doctor, my understanding of the matter is that I need baseline health record, so that when an issue crops up, we can attest to that record."

The MP’s decision comes on the heels of accusations by Mr. Agyapong that the one-time Minister for Transport, together with ex-Chief of Staff under former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s regime, Kwadwo Mpiani, were scheming to poison Akufo-Addo, one of the three aspirants vying to lead the party ahead of the 2016 elections.

On a different platform, Mr. Agyapong is on record to have said that the two gentlemen were planning to assassinate him.

But the calm and collected medical doctor turned-politician served the notice when he granted an interview to Mugabe of Montie FM yesterday in Accra. In the about 30 minutes interview, Dr Anane explained that as a medical doctor, he found it most regrettable to have been accused together with Mr. Mpiani, of planning to take a life when by training, he is supposed to save lives.

Though he could not tell when he will be heading to court, Dr. Anane, the man of few words, assured the host that sooner than later, the suit will be filed for a showdown.

On the perception that he disliked Akufo-Addo, a man tipped to win the impending party primary, Dr. Anane refuted that view and narrated the role he played in the events leading to the 2008 election which saw Akufo-Addo, for the first time, lose to then-candidate John Evans Atta Mills.

He mentioned that some time ago, he was approached by Nana Addo to join his campaign in their primary, but he had to refuse because they think differently.

Speaking in details about the NPP’s internal politics, Dr. Anane recalled how ahead of Mr. Kufuor’s election as the party’s candidate for the 2000 elections, party elders called on him to renounce his support for Mr. Kufuor so that the late Prof. Adu-Boahene goes unopposed.

He said he was promised that he will continue to be the MP for the Bantama Constituency should he allow Prof. Boahen to go. However, his choice of candidate of John Kufuor yielded results. He believes that his choice of the former Trade Minister, Mr. Kyeremanten, will once again yield results, as he is a better candidate than Akufo Addo.

On his political future as MP, Dr. Anane said that he was aware of machinations within the party to get him out of the way in 2016, because of his opposition to Akufo-Addo.

According to Dr. Anane, 2016 is far away and so could not make any definite decision at this moment.