The Republic Newspaper on Monday May 26, 2014, got access to a press statement issued by the Press office of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, the 2012 flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
In the statement signed by one Eugene Arhin, the office of the former opposition leader, sought to rubbish the May 22, 2014 publication of the Republic newspaper with the headline:“NPP gurus hot over ‘Le Baron’ cocaine saga,” describing it as ‘nothing but lies and deliberate fabrications designed in a desperate attempt to tarnish, once again, the image of Nana Akufo-Addo’.
All the Republic newspaper did in the publication of May 22, 2014, was to draw a rational connection between the flagbearer of the NPP and the NPP’s party machinery in general with David Kojo Anim-the owner of the Le-Baron Hotel in East Legon, given evidence gathered by the paper showing that the leadership of the party, prior to the 2012 Presidential elections, held several meetings at the Le-Baron hotel and had in fact received logistic support from the alleged drug peddler.
Our sources, tell us the meeting was amply attended by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, party financier and Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, Kennedy Agyapong, the party’s former National Chairman, Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey, former Attorney General, Ayikoi Otoo, among others.
Also, a strong stalwart of the party: Ken Agyapong was widely quoted few months after the 2012 elections as saying that the defeat was caused by the ‘selfish’ interest of the then party Chairman-Jake Obestsebi Lamptey-, who he alleged appropriated thousands of motorbikes meant for the party’s campaign to himself.
Among the motorbikes whose unknown whereabouts drew the angst of Ken Agyapong, were hundreds of bikes he claimed were donated by the owner of the Le-Baron hotel which he claimed were customized the ‘PATRIOT’
We have however noted that we had inadvertently stated in our May 22 edition that the motor bikes were labeled ‘Le-Baron’ instead of the “PATRIOT”.
Furthermore, the Republic newspaper tried to reiterate previous reports citing several NPP members alleged to be linked with illicit drug use or trade. A few years ago, the Afrocentric Magazine, Africawatch released a damning report claiming that Akufo Addo had been accosted at the Heathrow Airport for apparently attempting to enter the UK with a certain quantity of a substance suspected to be Marijuana.
Prior to the 2004, 2008 Presidential elections, reports were rife that the NPP was skin deep in the illicit drug trade, with several suggestions by pundits that the party may have been financed by a certain degree of drug cash.
The recent arrest of David Anim in the UK for attempting to haul an unknown, but significant quantity of illicit drugs into the UK and the USA pricked the Republic newspaper to make inferences from the apparently rosy relationship between the NPP and David Anim in the run up to the 2012 elections.
Indeed the London Metropolitan Police department, described David Anim as the leader within a drug trafficking organisation responsible for coordinating the transportation of large quantities of cocaine and heroin around the world.
He is also alleged to have serious ties with major drug gangs in Europe, South America and the United States of America.
For us and for many well-meaning citizens of Ghana, it is just natural that when the arrest of David Anim broke internationally, we quickly make certain connections from the relationship he had had with the NPP and proceeded to ask questions, regarding whether indeed the support he [David Anim] extended to the NPP came from legitimate sources.
These were the questions the publication sought to ask and sought answers for.
However, instead of giving concrete arguments to absolve himself from the suspicion held by many Ghanaians, Akufo Addo rather took the curious path of discrediting the Republic newspaper and launch frontal attacks on the newspaper, describing it as a ‘propaganda’ machinery and a ‘pro-NDC papers dedicated to publishing falsehoods about Nana Akufo-Addo’.
He even threatened to drag the paper to court if further of such publications are made.
We find this defensive mechanism by the office of the former NPP flag bearer very curious, particularly because the statement did little to adequately dispel the suspicions.
He may call this newspaper a propaganda machinery, but we can assure him that every news media has the right to its ideologies and while holding on to it, uphold the ethos of the profession by disseminating information that expose things that the general public would otherwise not be privy to.
So we would state unequivocally here that it is not enough to threaten us with legal suits, it will be more beneficial to the image of Akufo Addo and the NPP to clearly explain the questions raised by the Republic newspaper concerning its connections with David Anim.
Long live Ghana!
Signed….
David Tamakloe
Managing Editor,The Republic
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