Gen Mosquito insists new mansion from his 'sweat'

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, has rubbished a report that he has built two mansions in Accra and Kumasi within the short period that the NDC has been in office.

He said he would be deemed useless and irresponsible if he was unable to build such a house after holding several key political and public positions in this country for several years.

General Mosquito, as he is affectionately called, is alleged to have built two plush mansions at Oyarifa, a developing suburb on the Accra-Aburi road and Daaban Panyin, a suburb of Kumasi.

He says he had moved in to the three-storey Oyarifa house which, as at last week when we visited the site, painting was still in progress. All the other fittings had been done, with air conditioners fixed in all the rooms.

The water to the facility was provided by the National Service Secretariat, DAILY GUIDE learnt.

Speaking in an interview with Kessben Fm, The former deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in the Rawlings administration wondered why the newspaper would go to town with a publication that he had built a mansion.

According to him, it was no news because he had worked all his life to acquire money that he could use to build any mansion of his choice.

"Is it surprising that somebody who has worked as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 12 years, a deputy minister of Food and Agriculture for four years, bank manager for five years, stock broker for five years and a teacher for four years to build a mansion?" Asiedu-Nketia rhetorically asked.

The former NDC MP for Wenchi West said, "Apart from the several years I have worked in various professional fields, my wife is in Canada and has been bringing down money because she is also working hard there."

Mr Asiedu-Nketia, a former Middle school teacher at Seikwa in the Brong Ahafo region, noted that if in spite of the many years he had spent from his 55 years of existence to work, he was unable to build a mansion of his choice, then he would go down in history as the most useless person.

"What do you think my children, my wife, my extended family, friends and even well-wishers would have told me if after all these years, I am unable to build a mansion?"

It is however on record that Mr Asiedu-Nketia could not build a mansion of his choice for all this while until the NDC returned to power.

He had been living in his two-bedroom apartment at the MPs' Flats at Sukumono in Tema, a place sold to him by the state after his first term as parliamentarian in 1996.

The NDC scribe, who was recently engulfed in a controversy of selling blocks to the Bui Power Authority in a suspected conflict of interest case as a board member, admitted that he had built a mansion at Oyarifa in Accra but denied having one at Daaban Panyin in Kumasi.

Though he denied owning the said luxurious mansion in Kumasi, the architectural design of the Kumasi mansion is exactly the same as the Accra one, a development making residents in Kumasi disbelieve the contention of the former legislator.

Mr Asiedu-Nketia explained that he built the Oyarifa mansion because he wanted to have a comfortable abode so that he could contribute his quota towards the realization of the "Better Ghana" agenda promised by President Mills.

Meanwhile, residents at Daaban Panyin, who called into the radio programme, expressed utter surprise at the denial by the NDC general secretary, insisting that the mansion belonged to him.

"How can the NDC general secretary tell such a big lie that he was not the owner of the building, when even a day-old baby in this area knows that he owns the building." Kwasi Nyame, a resident noted.

Equally surprised at the denial was Maame Esi, who contended that she had personally seen General Mosquito visit the building site on several occasions.

A taxi driver who could not control his anger at the refutation of the NDC general secretary stated, "Does Asiedu-Nketia think that we do not know him and that if we see him we cannot make him out?"

They asked General Mosquito to tell the truth and stop insulting the intelligence of the public, particularly the people of Daaban Panyin.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that Mr Asiedu-Nketia allegedly built the said mansion within six months as cement and other materials were brought in hired articulated trucks.