Accra, Oct. 16, GNA- Government on Thursday, gave the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), a two-week ultimatum, to prove an allegation that President John Agyekum Kufuor owes more than five billion dollars to Kuwaiti Oil suppliers.
Mr Andrew Awuni, Press Secretary to the President, who announced the decision at a press briefing at the Osu Castle, said a lot of options were opened to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), including legal action after the ultimatum had elapsed.
He said an official statement from the NDC, which was carried by the media, alleged that the President was being dragged to the International Court of Justice in The Hague while his personal possessions were being appropriated to defray the debt.
Mr Awuni described the allegations as a wicked lie and a smear campaign against the President and the NPP in the run-up to the December Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
"In a similar fashion as the Kuwaiti oil lie, some mischievous propagandists have produced and are circulating a so-called list of government officials, their account numbers and amounts to their names. "The amounts listed in this document are so huge that their sum total will exceed the sum deposits in all banks in Ghana put together. That is how disingenuous the originators of the documents are." Mr Awuni alleged that the documents are being distributed to the public including military barracks, in order to provoke ill-feelings of the Army against President Kufuor and the citizenry.
He said the international that was better equipped to find out what President Kufuor was doing in any part of the world. "The high recognition accorded President Kufuor worldwide is not only unprecedented in our political history but is indeed a fine proof of his hard won reputation, which cannot be easily tainted by these baseless lies."
The Press Secretary accused some opposition politicians of deliberate decision to use the vehicle of deception, falsehood and even violence to achieve political power, stressing that on daily basis, they manufacture lies and publish them in their sponsored newspapers or even print them on ordinary sheets of paper for distribution. Mr Awuni said these politicians had decided on deception as a means to political power and would repeat these lies irrespective of how many times they were confronted with the truth.
"For instance, we are reminded of the numerous times that the Electoral Commission (EC) has said that government has met the Commission's budget request in full, yet these propagandists insist that government has refused to give the EC their budgetary request." Mr Awuni said what Ghanaians wanted to know from those seeking to lead them was what they did with the opportunities they had and what they would do if they were given yet another opportunity.
"The evidence of what these leaders did with their opportunities is available for all and that will be the bottom-line for an electoral judgment in December and not the high level deception we are witnessing today," he said. 17 Oct. 08