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Opinions of Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Columnist: Sarpong, Justice

President Mahama, tell us the truth and stop fibbing

"The Member of Parliament for Bekwai, Joe Osei Owusu, on Wednesday March 2 alleged on the floor of parliament that First Lady Lordina Mahama was putting up a building at the premises of the Flagstaff House for personal and private use.

According to the MP, Mrs Mahama is using her position and office at the Flagstaff House to operate an NGO. I wanted to observe that one of the acts of impunity is the president's wife building a warehouse within the four walls of the compound for her private NGO.One of the pieces of evidence supporting the claim of impunity – doing acts that are not sanctioned by the rules of law – is that the First Lady has put up a warehouse within the four walls of the Flagstaff House ostensibly for use of her NGO," he insisted."

This is the allegation the member of Parliament from Bekwai made against the first lady of the land and instead of the Presidency coming out and flatly denying it, it rather lexoconically resorted to rodomontade platitutes to serve us every dish from its LYING CAFE and expect us to eat them and leave them with gratuities. What seems like a denial is rather subtly being accepted because the public can verify whether there is a new addition to the original building so we got this response:



"The attention of the Office of the President has been drawn to a mischievous claim being circulated by minority Members of Parliament through some media houses that the First Lady has constructed a private warehouse within the precincts of the Flagstaff House- the seat of government.There cannot be, and there has not been any private construction within the Presidential Household. What is referred to as a warehouse is actually a storehouse for the use of the Office of the President, and constructed by the State."

The relevant sentence in this quote is the last sentence, "What is referred as a warehouse is actually a storehouse for the use of the President and constructed by the state" So the Member of Parliament from Bekwai is not lying and there has been a new building at the Flagstaff compound?

The Presidency can call it whatever they want to call it, a warehouse, a storehouse, a chicken coop or whatever, was this storehouse part of the original plan of the Flagstaff house? What is the President going to use the storehouse for? To sell contracts to the highest bidder and store stolen goods?
We spent over $100 million to build this Presidential Palace, are we supposed to believe there were no rooms designated to store stationaries and other Presidential provisions?


So if my friend Joe Osei Wusu have said a storehouse has been constructed at the premises of the Flagstaff house, would the President and his propaganda machine had accepted it? Seems the President not only hate the word INCOMPETENT but also hates the word WAREHOUSE. Warehouse store goods and the storehouse built at the Flagstaff house is also storing goods so what is the difference? Accra looks despicably nasty as a result of filthy attachments to properly constructed buildings along our streets.What does the presidency need a storehouse for in this huge edifice anyways?

When did the state construct this warehouse, sorry Mr President, I keep repeating warehouse instead of storehouse knowing you don't like that word at the seat of government and apart from the President and his staff, who else knows about it?


Wouldn't it had been prudent for members of Parliament to have been informed to avoid speculation? This administration like to do things without following laid down procedures and when their attention is called about it, it resorts to its usual propaganda denials.

How much was paid to construct the warehouse, oh sorry, storehouse, the President hates the word warehouse. I know the President or the first lady didn't pay for the construction of this building so where did the money come from and who approved it?

So the President decides he wants a warehouse, sorry again, a storehouse for his wife to store her NGO goods so he unilaterally decided to add a chicken coop to the Flagstaff house to mess up the aesthetic beauty of place or this is going to be used to raise chickens as Ndc promised to turn the place to if voted into power? Hopefully this will be the last building to be added to the Flagstaff house. Don't build a barn inside that compound to raise goats, please?

Justice Sarpong

(CARDINAL of TRUTH)