Officials of the Ghana Postal Company (GP) have dismissed reports that President Kufuor instructed his picture to be used on recently-published postage stamps.

Sources at GP explained that the decision to use of President Kufuor?s image was an independent decision taken by the Philately (or Stamp) department of the company. One of the recently-released postage spots President Kufuor standing behind UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, after Mr. Annan received the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway last year.

A report in the Ghana Palaver newspaper, a publication affiliated to the opposition NDC, suggested that the release of the stamp is part of a grand design to establish a ?personality cult? for President Kufuor. The Presidency has ignored the publication in the Palaver and refused to even comment on it. The paper also suggested that the government officials used computer programmes to superimpose the picture of Mr. Annan on a Kufuor photograph to create the impression that the two men were together in Norway. But officials at GP, preferring not to be named, told GhanaWeb that President Kufuor had no hand in the decision to print the new stamps.

The stamps, printed by UK-based printers, House of Questa, were issued in December in commemoration of the Nobel Peace Prize for Mr. Annan. According to the GP officials, Mr. Annan?s official photographer at the UN gave the pictures to the company. When the company received the pictures it sought the permission of the President before using his image in the stamp. The officials explained that President Kufuor?s picture was used because he was in Norway during the Nobel Prize presentation as a representative of Ghanaians, who had taken pride in the achievements of a son of the land.