General News of Thursday, 12 December 2019
Source: peacefmonline.com
2019-12-12
Asenso Boakye and Amoako Baah
The Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Francis Asenso Boakye has denied assertions made against his person by political scientist Dr. Amoako Baah.
In an interview on Neat FM’s afternoon talk show, Meman Nti hosted by Adakabri Frimpong Manson, the NPP top gun alleged that Mr. Francis Asenso Boakye, the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Opare and the other appointees surrounding President Akufo-Addo have impeded him from seeing the President.
In the said interview, Dr. Baah specifically said that the First Lady asked him to see Asenso Boakye to set up the meeting between him and the President which he did. He emphasized that since his meeting with Asenso Boakye, he had neither heard anything from him nor met the President.
In a response to these assertions, Mr. Asenso Boakye denied the claims made by the outspoken politician.
Explaining what actually happened, the Deputy Chief of Staff stated that though he met with Dr. Amoako Baah and discussed the issue of meeting the President with him, he forwarded same to the person in charge of the President’s schedules and appointments, and, therefore, cannot be blamed if the meeting has not come on.
Read full rejoinder on his facebook timeline below;
RE: ASENSO-BOAKYE AND CO PREVENTING ME FROM SEEING THE PRESIDENT – DR. AMOAKO BAAH.
My attention has been drawn to a video, circulating on social media, in which Dr. Amoako Baah in an interview on Neat FM’s afternoon talk show, Meman Nti hosted by Mr Adakabri Frimpong Manso, made remarks against my person which needs to be clarified.
In the interview, Dr. Amoako Baah asserted that the First Lady, upon consulting her, directed him to see me to set up a meeting between him (Dr. Baah) and the President of the Republic.
Indeed, Dr. Amoako Baah came to my office sometime this year to discuss a possible meeting with the President. Courtesy would not allow me to disclose the details of the subject matter for which he needed to see the President. Suffice it to say that it was not about the referendum as portrayed in the interview.
As is the practice, I forwarded his request to the responsible person in charge of the President’s appointments and meetings.
Given the huge volume of requests received from various stakeholders, including party executives and members for an audience with the President and with his demanding schedule, it is often the case that requests are noted for follow up action and an appointment arranged when an appropriate time has been determined.
Having made his request known and communicated same to him, it is, therefore, difficult for me to accept Dr. Amoako Baah’s sensational claim that he has been deliberately impeded from seeing the President.
The assertion that I did not pick his calls on several occasions is not accurate. When he called on me to facilitate his meeting with the President, I took and saved his new number, having told me he was no more using the old one I had. If the intent was to sever ties with him or ignore his calls, I would not have saved the new number. In any case, I receive a large number of missed calls each day but endeavour to call back once the number is known to me.
Let me state unequivocally that I have no such power to stop anyone, not least, senior members of the party or government from meeting with the President. That is not my job, respectfully.
It is, therefore, erroneous for Dr. Amoako Baah and Adakabri Frimpong Manso to create the impression that I have been barricading the President from being seen or met by Dr. Amoako Baah or any other person for that matter.
Though Dr Amoako Baah, in a conversation with me later, has indicated that he has been misconstrued and promised to clarify the issues, I find it regretable that he misrepresented the facts.
I appeal to the general public to disregard those assertions and the sensationalism that the host of the programme, Adakabri Frimpong Manson sought to create during the interview.
Francis Asenso Boakye,
Deputy Chief of Staff,
Office of the President,
Jubilee House, Accra.
