Former Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has said most of his best friends are Northerners.

The former flagbearer-aspirant, who is of Akan extraction also says he has worked with people from diverse ethnic group all his life and has, therefore, rejected a political charge of “tribal bigotry” levelled against him by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Mr Osafo-Maafo told Oman FM's Fiifi Boafo on Tuesday that, for instance, he had two Secretaries, at different times – an Ewe and a Ga – during his days as Managing Director of the erstwhile Bank for Housing and Construction, a situation he used to demonstrate how open-minded he is as far as his relationship with people of other ethnic extractions is concerned.

He added that while at the Ministry of Finance, the only staff he appointed as a Special Assistant was an Ewe; his personal driver of decades is a Krobo; while most of his friends are Northerners.

According to Mr Osafo-Maafo, his love for people of other ethnic groups decimates tribal bigotry allegations levelled against him by members of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) following the surfacing of a secretly recorded tape on which a voice resembling his, was heard complaining that even though about 90 per cent of Ghana’s natural resources are concentrated in Akan-dominated areas, people of other ethnic extractions whose home regions have no resources, are the one governing the country.

Mr Osafo-Maafo has come out to deny making any such ethnocentric comments and accused the NDC of “mischievously doctoring” his voice to paint him as a tribal bigot.

An anti-Osafo-Maafo ad hoc group was recently formed in response to the NPP stalwart’s alleged ethnocentric comments, and the group intends going on a demonstration over the issue.

The NDC’s Eastern regional branch has also described Mr Osafo-Maafo as a “coward” for denying his own voice. Meanwhile another stalwart of the NPP, Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe has told Starr News that Mr Osafo-Maafo must be bold to accept he erred and apologise for it.