— “He Is A Tax Evader & An American Agent”

By Cecil Mensah

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Free Zones Board (FZB), Kojo Twum Boafo, has rubbished the suit served on him by the owner, financier and flagbearer of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), and gone ahead to describe him as a tax evader and high profile agent of the America government.

According to him, in the early 1990s, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, previously known as Paul Yorke, during his stint with Deloitte and Touché had a contract from Ghana’s State Enterprise Commission (SEC) and earned a whopping US$500,000 dollars profit but refused to pay tax on the amount.

Mr. Boafo, who spoke on Radio Gold last Friday, disclosed that when the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) took the necessary measures to investigate his unpatriotic actions, he wrote a letter to the United States (US) Embassy in Accra, claiming to be a US national and that the then PNDC government wanted to persecute him for being a US citizen.

He said Dr. Nduom’s links to the US government was confirmed in the recently released “WikKileaks” diplomatic cables, in which he (Nduom) was described as a high-profile collaborator of the US government, where he granted an interview to the Political Chiefs (PolChiefs) of the US Embassy about developments in Ghana.

The PPP owner in that cable was tagged “strictly protect”, which explains why the US government commended him and insisted that he signed the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) compact, with the then sitting President John Agyekum Kufour, standing aloof during the process.

Mr. Boafo made this damning revelation about Dr. Nduom in reaction to a widely circulated news item to the effect that he (Boafo) had been dragged to court by Dr. Nduom for maligning his person on Radio Gold, an Accra based radio station.

Mr. Boafo, who sounded unperturbed by the suit of the PPP flagbearer and the damages therein, said he had lived in the US for over eighteen years, but came back to Ghana without being a collaborator of the US government making a strong case of love for his country.

The Free Zones boss declared that no agent of Dr. Nduom had served him with any law suit, and insisted he was waiting for it so he could meet him in court.

He accused the PPP owner of holding a press conference, and without any provocation attacked him and Nii Lante Vanderpuije for shirking their responsibilities and that President John Mills had lost control of the country for appointing them into his government.

He said Ndoum in his said press conference went ahead to tell a falsehood that the taxpayers’ money was used to pay him (Boafo) for doing nothing for the state aside of gallivanting from a radio station to another across the country as a member of the government’s communication team.

He challenged Dr. Ndoum to serve him with the writ, if he (Nduom) is a man worth his salt. He wondered why Ndoum could not serve him the writ, when he (Ndoum) saw him (Boafo) at the Kotoka International Airport, last Wednesday 25, April 2012 when he (Nduom) was returning from his trip abroad.

He explained that if Ndoum was serious about his suit, he could have asked his lawyers executing the suit to serve him the writ at the airport.

“In any case, I am not hard to find if he is really serious about serving me the writ, he could do that anytime” , he dared Dr Nduom.

He said he had been a political pundit since his school days and the traces of Dr. Nduom as a major collaborator of the United Party (UP), the mother party of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), cannot be hidden because he (Ndoum) at the time of forming his own party used the rising star symbol of the PP and added another “P” to put dust in the eyes of Ghanaians.