The "Kofi Wayo Circus" Continues

The open hostility between Chuck Kofi Wayo and the General Secretary of the United Renaissance Party (URP), Alhassan Saeed, has taken a new twist, with the Nima-born politician dragging the party’s scribe to the Police Station over $500 theft. Wayo is accusing Saeed of stealing the money when it slipped out of his pocket at his East Legon residence in Accra 10 days ago; an allegation the URP general secretary has flatly denied.

Saeed challenged Wayo to the allegation, saying that Chuck was not in the country at the time of the supposed theft.

This latest development adds to a series of tussles the maverick politician has been engaged in with executives of the yet-to-be registered political grouping.

At the police station, Daily Guide learnt that the “Nima Boy” has also accused Saeed of failing to render an account of ¢70 million he claims to have given him to undertake party organisation.

The number, 70, seems be Mr. Wayo’s darling figure, as this is the second time, in less than two weeks, the ¢70 million figure has slipped out of his lips.

He had earlier accused the acting editor of Daily Guide of demanding ¢70 million to kill a damning story about him, and then went on to describe the news editor of the paper as a beggar, on air; apparently, in reaction to a story about the confusion-rocked Golden Tulip Hotel meeting of the URP, where the General Secretary incurred the wrath of Kofi Wayo by telling him that he is not the founder of the party.

The acting editor said he is determined to settle Wayo’s allegation against him on the appropriate platform.

The two feuding URP gurus met yesterday at the Nima Police Station over the allegations, where Kofi Wayo was in full flight with his theatricals and mannerisms.

When Daily Guide caught up with the District Police Commander for Nima, Mr. Iddrisu Abu Yakubu, he confirmed that a report was made by Kofi Wayo.

However, the commander would not go into details, other than say that his outfit will feed the Regional Commander with a situation report.

Daily Guide learnt that at the meeting with the police, Wayo dropped the allegation of theft against the General Secretary and rather came up with the allegation of misappropriation of ¢70million.

Mr. Saeed, who has already given a statement to the Nima Police Station, told Daily Guide that “this is outrageous and gives a clearer picture of who Kofi Wayo is”.

The two have been on a collision course for the past few weeks over Wayo’s assertion that he is the founder of the URP; an utterance which was contested by the General Secretary.

In his narration about the theft allegation leveled against him by Kofi Wayo, Alhassan Saeed said he was at Ashaiman, meeting with the constituency executives, when his wife called to inform him that three policemen, led by a URP member, had come looking for him at their Horak Hotel residence in Kokomlemle.

“I asked my wife to read out to me, on the phone, the contents of the correspondence which the cops dropped. She told me that it was about theft.

I assured her that she should not worry because I could not have committed such an offence. On my return from the assignment at about 5.30 pm, I went to the Nima Police Station where I was told that the CID lady in charge of the case had left for home,” he said.

Mr. Saeed said when he reported to the station on Tuesday at about 8.30am, he met DSP Abu Yakubu who referred him to the Station’s CID.

This time around, the CID lady was present and she told him what complaint Kofi Wayo had logded against him, he said.

According to her, Kofi Wayo had accused him of stealing his $500, which he said, had fallen out of his pocket at his East Legon residence.

“I was surprised at the accusation because the last time I was in Kofi Wayo’s house was ten days ago, at the time I encountered Maamile, the woman who charged on him for allegedly defrauding her.”

“The policewoman told me that Kofi Wayo said he wants the money back: That was not all. He added that I have not presented a report for ¢12 million he gave me for party organization,” Alhassan Saeed said.

He told the detective that all that Kofi Wayo said were lies and added that the last time he met the man was during the ill-fated Golden Tulip Hotel meeting with other executive members of the party.

“In my statement to the Police, I indicated that the power struggle over who is the founder of the party is the reason for Kofi Wayo’s anger.

There is no monetary issue involved because after all, the party does not even have a bank account. The issue of ¢12 million is therefore a lie,” he said.

Continuing, he said, “I’m telling the whole world that Kofi Wayo is meeting the Disciplinary Committee of the party at the Teshie/Nungua constituency office. He has been notified about this and if he fails to honour the invitation, he could be expelled from the party.”

In a related development, the General Secretary has been cautioned by the National Executive Committee to avoid talking to radio stations in response to Kofi Wayo’s attacks.

Lamenting on the plight of the party, the Chairman, according to Alhassan Saeed, said that even though the URP had their provisional certificate before the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), the latter will be launched on 28th October.