The Chairman of the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, has said questions surrounding the errors in the official anniversary brochure should be directed at Presidential Staffer, Stan Dogbe, because he is “responsible for the brochure.”

After an impressive and colourful Independence Day ceremony which was graced by two African Heads of State, the numerous errors in the official brochure for the event went viral on Facebook, Twitter and on other social media platforms.

One of the mistakes was the description of Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as “the President of the Republic of Ghana”. The brochure also had many factual, typographical, and grammatical errors, which have been widely shared on social media.

This morning, I called someone who works closely with the Flagstaff House and asked for contacts to members of the planning committee.

My source said Commodore Steve Obimpeh chaired the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee. When I called Obimpeh and asked to speak to him on the error-ridden brochure, he said: “Speak to Stan Dogbe. Speak to Stan Dogbe; he was responsible for the brochure.”

He ended the call before I had time to ask further questions. When I called Stan Dogbe at 12:59PM, he did not answer my calls. At 1:05 PM, I sent him a message on WhatsApp and told him what Obimpeh had told me and that I wanted explanation. Even though he read the message, and the application showed he was “online”, he did not reply.

At 1:52PM, I sent a reminder, “Hi, Stan.” WhatsApp again showed that he read the message but did not respond. He has still not responded at the time of posting this article (5:03PM)

The Information Services Department (ISD) later issued a statement apologising to the President and the people of Ghana for “misrepresentations” in the brochure. The ISD said it “authored the content of the brochure” and “accepts responsibility and wishes to unreservedly apologise for the development.”

Below is the full text of the ISD statement.

“STATEMENT ON EVENT BROCHURE FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE

“The Information Services Department (ISD) wishes to apologise to the President, HE John Dramani Mahama, and the people of Ghana for the misrepresentations in the Event Brochure of the impressive 59th Independence Day Parade at the Black Star Square. The Department, which authored the content of the brochure, accepts responsibility and wishes to unreservedly apologise for the development.

Francis Kwarteng ARTHUR

AG. DIRECTOR

Accra- January 12th, 2016.”


The ISD statement had yet another error with the date. Even though the statement was issued on March 7th, 2016, apologising for the March 6th event, it was dated January 12, 2016. The statement was emailed to media houses from the Ministry of Information’s official email address. Joy FM’s checks with the Deputy Minister for Communication, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, revealed that the statement is authentic.

“Date is an error. Pls ignore the date but the statement is accurate and comes from ISD,” Felix Kwakye Ofosu said in a text message. It is not clear whether or not he saw the statement before it was sent.

I called Commodore Obimpeh again for more information on the exact role Stan Dogbe played in the preparation of the brochure but he did not answer my call.” Below are some of the pages with errors in the brochure.