"I am sorry" - Theresa Tagoe

The under-fire Deputy Minister for Works and Housing and Member of Parliament for Ablekuma South, Madame Theresa Tagoe has apologised to Ghanaians for, by most accounts, her rather decent indulgence in asking her homeless widowed brother, Rev Dr Asante Antwi and his children to take up temporary lodgings at her relatively spacious official residence, near the State House Accra, instead of her two-bedroom house at her constituency.

The Deputy Minister, famous for her unique blend of fire and beneficence, speaking exclusively to the Statesman, tells Ghanaians, “I’m very sorry.” “Obviously my effort to help out a very close family member in need has badly tickled the sensibilities of many Ghanaians, especially, the thousands of families, which, like that of my brother, are struggling with the difficult problems of finding suitable and affordable place to lay their heads.” Sitting back and wiping her brow with a handkerchief, she adds, “It has been a very humbling experience.”

She however, refutes media reports that she has been given an ultimatum by the Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, to either “occupy her official bungalow at Cantoments in Accra or forfeit it.” She dismisses the report, first published in the Evening News, but notably with no quotations from the Chief of Staff, as untrue because Kwadwo Mpiani “has not said any such thing to me”, and could not since she has not, “re-allocated” the house to her brother as reported.

“I was with the Chief of Staff on Tuesday from 9.00 am to 5-30pm at GIMPA (Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration) and he said no such thing” said she, adding, “In any case, I still spend my time between the official residence and my smaller house in my constituency.”

Oddly enough, Kwamena Bartels, her former boss, was on radio on Thursday asserting that Ministers are allocated official residence only if they are “desperately in need.” This has been refuted by his former deputy, who says, “It is the prerogative of ministers to take it or leave it. In my case I decided to exercise the privilege in August.”

The Minister who usually works until late hours, often after 9 pm, says she sometimes stays at the official residence nearby her office. But since she meets her constituents every Saturday and Sunday she decided to share time between the two houses. Her brother the retired Principal of Trinity College, Rev Dr Asante Antwi, who had lost his wife around the same time and had to vacate his official residence around the same time, was in desperate need of accommodation.

His sister, Theresa, a mother herself, had volunteered to share the responsibility of looking after his children, including 15-year-old Afua Antwi. The deputy Minister of Works and Housing therefore saw nothing absolutely wrong with offering some rooms in her official residence to her brother and his family on a temporary basis. Her brother and his family joined her in the early parts of October.

She says her brother who recently lost his wife of many years to an illness, is very distressed about “what is happening.” According to the MP for Ablekuma South, in the past two weeks her brother has inspected 3 houses and is in the process of negotiating for one, but the size of the deposit which the landlords are asking for is just too high,” she lamented. She confirms that she has re-allocated the house in the middle of the controversy to one of the Directors at her Ministry, Adjei Siaw, who is the Technical Advisor for works.