HIV Scandal Hits Yamoah Ponkoh

Yamoah Ponkoh, a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), has debunked media reports suggesting that he is HIV positive and has infected some ladies in the country with the deadly virus.

Reacting to the story in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, the outspoken politician alleged that the publications were being engineered by his detractors who were not enthused about his new appointment as Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

However, investigations by this paper indicated that news about Yamoah Ponkoh’s dispensing of the deadly disease to his partners had been around before he landed his new job in Kumasi.

According to Yamoah Ponkoh, who was recently appointed the Ashanti Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), his detractors were concocting these stories about him because they wanted him to lose focus on his new job.

The former official of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Kwaebibrem football clubs said looking at the timing of the publications, indications were that they were meant to cause public disaffection for his good self.

But the lady at the centre of the controversy, Mariam Asante, insisted that ‘Wofa Yamoah’ was lying through his teeth and challenged him to come over for a transparent HIV test.

Interestingly, the new NHIS regional boss told the paper he would not spend his precious time and energy responding to what he referred to as “mere machinations” because according to him, his “main priority for now is how to fashion out formidable policies and programmes to move the Ashanti Regional NHIS forward.

“If my detractors think that I will descend into the gutters with them by responding to their machinations, then they will laugh at the wrong side of their mouths because the effective management of my new office in honour of President Mills and the NDC is my main preoccupation,” he said, claiming that because the stories lacked credibility, they were not discussed on radio.

It would be recalled that Mariam Asante, a 29-year-old trader, told the media she had tested positive for the deadly HIV I and II viruses four consecutive times in three weeks at Rabito Clinic, Police Hospital, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and Top Herbal Center, after having four bouts of unprotected sex with Yamoah Ponkoh.

According to the lady, she underwent an HIV/AIDS test on 15th January 2009 at the Police Hospital and tested negative before coming into contact with Yamoah Ponkoh some weeks later.

She revealed further that the vociferous NDC activist promised to marry her and therefore she had two rounds of unprotected sex with him at the Air View Hotel in Accra and a repeated dose at his West Legon residence a week later.

Mariam, who was very confident of the allegations she was making, named a driver with a top man at the Presidency (name withheld) as the person who personally linked her to Yamoah Ponkoh.

She said when she confronted her ex-lover over the HIV test results, the NDC guru was virtually on his knees, and promised to fly her out of the country for another test, but refused to honour that promise.

“I am ready to go anywhere with him on this matter. He was aware of his status and deliberately infected me with the virus. Before having sex with me, he sent his driver to get him a cocktail of pills, which he took before we went to bed,” she said.

Mariam said she never saw Wofa Yamoah after the repeated unprotected sex escapades for several months until she detected some rashes on her body and therefore went for the test which proved positive.

The lady contended that Yamoah Ponkoh had avoided meeting her after she informed him about the results of his reckless sex bouts but promised to foot her medical bills, even though he was reluctant to go for a test to get his status known.

Meanwhile, while Yamoah has reportedly told the Searchlight newspaper that he knew the lady but never had sex with her, confiding in a popular radio presenter that he was ready to foot the cost of treatment for the lady.

From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi