The presidency has strongly dismissed claims that the former deputy Food and Agric Minister William Quaitoo was forced to resign following his “unguarded” tribal slur.

Mr. Quaitoo in an interview with Starr News recently described farmers from the North, demanding compensation for their crops destroyed by the army worm epidemic as people who cannot be trusted.

He resigned Tuesday after he was heavily chastised by residents of the Northern Region including a colleague in government, Clara Napaga Tia Sulemana, a presidential staffer despite showing remorse.

A statement from the presidency announcing the former deputy Minister’s resignation said, “The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, this evening accepted the resignation from office of the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Hon. William Quaitoo, MP, which takes immediate effect. The President wished him the very best in his future endeavors.”

Shedding more light on the development Wednesday, August 30, 2017, on Morning Starr, the Director of Communications at the Presidency Eugene Arhin said even though series of actions were being contemplated by President Akufo-Addo, the former deputy Minister was not pressured to bow out.

“The most important thing…is that the Minister on his volition came up to the president to resign and then the president accepted his resignation,” he told Francis Abban.

He indicated the president believed Mr. Quaitoo’s situation should be an eye opener to all of his appointees saying “he [President Akufo-Addo] has been making this refrain constantly that the Ghanaian people voted for us because they believe we are completely different from what the NDC had offered over the last eight years as a result of that we should conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the of the kind of change the people of Ghana voted for.

“So each and every appointee should be guarded by that particular mantra of the president that we serve at the pleasure or at the displeasure of the Ghanaian people.

So whatever we do should be guarded and guided by the fact that there are over 25million people who are scrutinizing you on a daily basis to make sure that whatever it is you pledged or you promised to them you are delivering on that and if you fall short of that they will come after you.”