MAHAMA'S BROTHER WANTS TERKPER OUT?

The John Dramani Mahama-led administration which is already in tatters is further being allegedly suffocated by his close blood relations.

With rumours of an impending reshuffle, an influential brother of the President is said to have set wild fire within the corridors of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

And he is allegedly scheming from all angles to get current Finance Minister Seth Terkper out of office, according to highly placed sources within the government who are not happy about the development.

At a meeting with his friends and cronies, the man was said to have boastfully stated that he was capable of getting any minister out of office because his brother listens to him.

Interestingly, the said brother of the President is so much interested in seeing a Deputy Minister at the ministry, Mona Quartey, becoming the minister.

The New Statesman has the strongest indication that forces are therefore being marshaled to go after Mr Terkper on various platforms in the coming days, all as part of the plan to get him out of office.

Information gathered by the paper suggests that the President's brother would engage the services of some of the known pro-NDC papers to churn out negative stories about Mr Terkper.

The man at the centre of this alleged scheme is said not to be happy with the manner the Finance Minister "is protecting the national purse which is virtually empty."

Our information indicates that this man, who virtually runs a parallel Presidency, was not enthused about how "the strict Finance Minister turned down some of friends and cronies when they wanted to use the backdoor to do things at the Ministry of Finance."

Mr Terkper received a lot of bad press from some of the poor-NDC papers last year, with some notable NDC big shots and his colleague ministers, including Mahama Ayariga, attacking him with claims that he was overly truthful with the state of the economy.

But at the time, President Mahama was forced to admit that there was a lot of backdoor scheming to get Mr Terkper out, and expressed confidence in his Finance Minister.