Sekondi Member of Parliament, Papa Owusu Ankomah, has described as “pure speculation,” media reports claiming he intends contesting the 2016 presidential election.

“I’ve never expressed any intention of running”, Papa Owusu Ankomah told XYZ News Reporter Papisdaf Abdullah Ali in an exclusive interview on Thursday, September 19, 2013.

“I don’t think that’s a priority for our party. People are entitled to speculate…everyone is entitled to speculate…this is not the time for our party to be talking about flagbearership,” he said.

According to the former Majority Leader, who served in various ministerial positions in the Kufuor administration, “there are serious matters before us now that we are considering”.

Pressed further on the matter about his personal ambitions, Mr. Owusu Ankomah said:”…I’m not in the position of denying a speculation…what I will tell you is that the priority of the party now, I believe, is to prepare itself to contest the election for 2016, so we are preparing the structures for the party; reorganising”.

“After all, this election was completed barely a month ago because as far as we are concerned, until the Supreme Court determined the matter, we considered the election to be in issue, so now the party is going to review the goings on, the judgment, the electoral system and how it has to reorganise its structures to be able to effectively deliver when called upon by the people of Ghana,” he observed.

He stressed that whoever is talking about his presidential ambition is “speculating”.

“That’s not the priority of the party; that I can confirm to you”. Under President Kufuor’s administration, Papa Owusu Ankomah served with the Ministries of Justice, Youth and Sports, Parliamentary Affairs, Interior, Education, Science and Sports, as well as Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiatives.

He is generally known as a silent heavyweight in the biggest opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The Daily Dispatch Newspaper has named him as one of 15 persons craving the presidency.

The others include former information Minister Oboshie Sai Cofie; former Attorney General Joe Ghartey; former Trades Minister and two-time flagbearer aspirant Alan Kyeremanten, as well as Subin MP and one-time aspirant Isaac Osei.

The others, beside the party’s twice-defeated presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, are his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; former health Minister Dr. Richard Anane; renowned heart surgeon and former Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and one-time aspirant, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng; former NPP General Secretary and current Okere MP Dan Botwe; and one-time contestant Dr. Kobina Arthur Kennedy.

The rest include former trade Minister and one-time aspirant Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku; 2012 campaign Director and also one-time aspirant Boakye Agyarko, former Information Minister Stephen Asamoah Boateng and former Attorney General Nii Ayikoi Otoo.