General News of Saturday, 24 May 2014

Source: office of dr. kwame amoako tuffuor

Re: Dr. Amoako Tuffuor was not sacked for financial misappropriation

It has come to the attention of the office of Dr. Kwame Amoako Tuffuor, former Executive Chairman of the Ghana School Feeding Programme and the brain behind the all-time successful programme that, some media houses with disregard for proper journalism and an obligation to feed the general public with credible and factual information have resorted to petty journalism in their quest to massage the truth and curve history for the purposes of destroying the hard-earned reputation of Dr. Amoako Tuffuor.

The Al-Hajj newspaper in a publication on Thursday May 22nd, 2014 titled Akufo-Addo sets up Alan described Dr. Amoako Tuffuour in a very demeaning manner for the purpose of thwarting the minds of people even in the face of available truth and an unhidden public knowledge.

The story which was subsequently reproduced on GhanaWeb and many other online news portals claimed Dr. Tuffuor “ was booted out of office as national coordinator of the school feeding program by former President Kufuor for alleged financial misappropriation…”. We, however, bring to the knowledge of the good people of Ghana that no apparent reason was given for the dismissal of Dr. Tuffuor and thus such claims by Al-Hajj is another attempt by a newspaper known for its incredibility and deep-roots in the corridors of government to run down able-men charting a good course of projecting Nana Akufo-Addo to come salvage the economic woes of Ghanaians by winning the next general elections.

We state further that, Dr. Tuffuor, not too long ago, won a whopping Ghc130,000 against the state, by an Accra High Court decision on 28th May, 2012, for that unpopular decision by the then President to sack him. The state, however, has not even been able to pay the debt spearheading close to Ghc200,000 with accumulated interest. This information was available for proper cross-checking, but a newspaper with little respect for research nor writing standardised stories guided by the proper journalistic etiquettes unsurprisingly decided to burry the truth and flag falsehood.

Henceforth, we challenge the Al-Hajj newspaper to provide any evidence of misappropriation of funds or forever remain silent, and refrain from its unguarded vitriolic attacks on hard-working citizens who have contributed voluntarily and selflessly to building mother Ghana.

Signed.

OPOKU NTI ERNEST

Media Relations Officer

Office of Dr. Kwame Amoako Tuffuor