General News of Monday, 10 July 2017

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

NDC members are ‘tickling themselves’; I won’t retract my statement – Adwoa Safo

MP for the Dome Kwabenya constituency, Sarah Adwoa Safo MP for the Dome Kwabenya constituency, Sarah Adwoa Safo

Member of Parliament for the Dome Kwabenya constituency, Sarah Adwoa Safo seems not perturbed by the calls from Ghanaians and especially members of the National Democratic Congress to apologise and retract claims she made about the construction of a community Day Senior High School for her constituency.

Members of the NDC attacked the MP for having “lied” about constructing a school which according to them was from all indications constructed by Former President John Mahama during his term in office.

Member of Parliament for North Tongu; Samuel Ablakwa rubbished the claims, indicating, that Ms. Safo had no hand in securing the school for the Dome-Kwabenya constituency. NDC members in the constituency also reacted to the MP’s claims at a press conference addressed by the NDC Vice Chairman for the constituency who described her as “a serial liar”. The party’s members have since demanded an apology from her in that regard.

Adwoa Safo who has been silent the whole time over the issue, on Sunday stood her grounds, refusing to apologise to the NDC. Representing the Dome-Kwabenya MP, her aide; Emmanuel Boakye indicated that Ms. Safo stands by her statements and will continue to do so.

According to him, a purported apology letter being circulated mostly on social media in which Adwoa Safo is stated to have unreservedly rendered apologies for her comments and retracted is a move initiated by any of the ‘NDC gurus’ and not from the MP’s camp.

“It is a ridiculous, complete palpable lie….It is an agenda of the NDC and then they tickle themselves and start laughing.”

“I suspect any of the NDC gurus. We stand by it and continue to stand by it. We will never ever apologise,” Dr. Boakye stated.

The supposed apology letter circulating on social media read:

APOLOGIES OVER COMMUNITY S.H.S. COMMENT

For Immediate Release

For a while I have wanted to pour out everything in my heart, but it is been bottled up. Out of fear, humiliation, and hurt. What I have encountered in the past few days is one of the hardest moments of my political and professional life, but I need to address this face-forward.

There are truth and some lies swarming the internet and I need to take a moment to clear the air. But before I do that, I need to apologize to Former President John Mahama, World Bank and the Ghanaian public. Knowing I have let people down is one of the hardest things to accept. Beyond all else, I have let myself down and the shame I feel is overwhelming.

My comment was only in regards to the Community Senior High School in my constituency, that was built by the previous government during my tenure as Member of Parliament.

Please consider this statement to constitute an unconditional retraction of my previous statements. I would appreciate the courtesy of this apology be accepted.

Signed

Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo

Minister/MP

9th July, 2017

Background

Deputy Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for the Dome-Kwabenya constituency; Sarah Adwoa Safo, in a video gone viral on the various media platforms, is seen claiming credit for funding the construction of the Kwabenya Senior High School (one of the John Mahama Community Day schools), with monies she lobbied from the World Bank.

She also criticized the opposition NDC for having claimed ownership of the project and taking undue credit for a project they know nothing about; this she did with the intent of reminding her constituents of the good job her party (though in opposition at the time) did, to bring development in the constituency.

Adwoa Sarfo since the incident has not been spared by Ghanaians who as usual have brought her under ‘fire” on various social media platforms.