Ashanti Regional Minister and Member of Parliament for Subin, Mr. Sampson Kwaku Boafo has rubbished allegations in an Accra bi-weekly that he had bought a house for ?1.5 billion and also received a gift of a 230 Benz from an unnamed person for favours in return.

"These are all lies" because I have not bought any building at Asonomas, neither do I own a 230 Benz car" he told The Chronicle.

He said he owned a building at Atasomaso which he had built himself, having acquired the land as part of legal fees. (Boafo is the counsel for the Atasomaso stool).

Boafo also denied owning a 230 Benz, let alone receiving one as a gift. The Subin MP said currently he owned a 200 Compressor Benz, which was acquired with the proceeds from the sale of a Benz car he had owned. He said he had sold his Benz car to the Managing Director of GOIL, one Agyemang Duah and topped it with the MP's loan in order to acquire the 200 Compressor, which had been supplied by Silver Star Motors.

The Regional Minister expressed surprise as to what would make somebody want to give him a gift of that nature.

Reacting to speculations that the purported gift had come from a contractor for some favours, Boafo said he did not need such a gift because that was a conflict of interest.

"I have nothing to hide," he said. He has therefore directed all doubting Thomases to the Assets Declaration Committee.

According to him, any body who took the trouble upon himself and verified at the Assets Declaration Committee, would hail him as a man of substance.

Minister Boafo stated that he had declared all his assets including landed properties, even those in England and his foreign accounts.

He said also that his Tantra Hill house was bought in 1990 while in exile in London and disclosed further that he had a lot more houses in Kumasi, Juaso and Konongo, all of which were acquired before he was appointed Regional Minister.

The National Democrat, an official mouthpiece of the NDC, in its February 16, 2004 edition, published what seemed like the fact that, MP S.K. Boafo had bought a house at Asonomas (Atasomaso) for ?1.5 billion and further received a 230 Benz as a gift.

The paper did not indicate from whom the said building was bought, neither was the source of the 230 Benz car mentioned.

Boafo's children, including two successful lawyers might or might not take legal action against the publication. They had not reached consensus on the issue when The Chronicle checked.

The Atasomaso building was commissioned in September 2002 as part of activities programmed by the Minister's children to mark his (Boafo's) 60th birthday.