Former Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, was misled by Accra-based Joy FM to think that the Kwesi Botchwey-led committee report on why the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost last year’s elections – which the radio station claimed it has intercepted – was genuine, Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, has said.
According to him, Dr Boamah did not have a copy of the original report as at the time he granted an interview to the radio station to react to claims that he has been indicted in the report, hence, his reaction.
The report, as published by Joy FM, reproduced claims by a group of pro-NDC media practitioners that Dr Boamah and former presidential staffer, Stan Dogbe, were partly responsible for the then incumbent party’s defeat in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.
“The President was virtually naked with the two around him,” portions of the published report read.
But Dr Boamah mounted a strong defence against the claim that accused him of being one of two prime people who caused the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) defeat in the 2016 elections.
He told Joy FM that: “Let it be known that it is never the case, it is never the case that any of those things that have been said happened. I did my job very well, and if anybody wants to assess me based on how I worked, at least they should assess it with the 2012 campaign, when I was specifically Deputy Campaign Coordinator.”
The report revealed resources budgeted to facilitate NDC communication activities were diverted, but Dr Omane Boamah challenged that, too.
“To the best of my ability, within budget, we did what we could. That is the reason why with all the dust that is being thrown at various Ministers left, right, centre, a lot of the Ministries are still standing because we ensured that we worked within our means,” he said.
Commenting on this development on TV3’s New Day programme on Saturday, October 28, Alhassan Suhuyini said: “As at the time Omane Boamah was making the comments, he did not have access to the original report.
“He was deceived by Joy FM until his attention was drawn to the fact that this is a cooked report intended to create tension in the NDC. There are three versions of the so-called report in the public domain, and all these are fake.”
