Buaben Asamoa beats retreat over Jane Naana attack without apology

Barely twenty-four hours after attacking NDC running mate Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the NPP Director of Communications Yaw Buaben Asamoa has beaten a retreat without an apology.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrookoo on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, the incumbent Member of Parliament for Adentan Constituency denied attacking the academician.

Host of the programme, Kwame Sefa Kaye, after reading a message contained in an interview conducted earlier with Professor Ransford Gyampo, University of Ghana, Legon, asked if he [Yaw Buabeng Asamoah] made such a statement, he replied: “No.”

Subsequently, the host asked to know what he said, prying for details but the legislator avoided a categorical statement, and instead did a detour into unrelated discussions on the panic of students at Accra Girls High following cases of COVID-19 there.

He explained that he was taken out of context even though sound bytes of his utterances are available to authenticate the comment.

The announcement of Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang appears to have touched some nerves in the ruling party with many party officials searching for faults in her. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu and Ursula Owusu-Ekuful are on record to have attacked her.

The Majority leader said the NDC running mate lacked what it takes to run the Office of a Vice President of the Republic of Ghana.

Meanwhile, the announcement of Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as the running mate to Mr. Mahama threw the towns of Komenda-Edna-Eguafo into a state of jubilation. Also, women advocacy groups and usually conservative bodies and individuals across Ghana and the rest of the world have welcomed the choice.

Majority of interviews and news items carried on media outlets across Ghana and abroad, lauded the choice. In December, Ghana goes to the polls. It is a straight fight between the opposition NDC and the incumbent NPP government of President Akufo-Addo, as the CPP, the PNC, the PPP, and the remaining smaller parties have thus far not named their Presidential candidates or shown clear indications of holding a congress or a conference to do so, with barely five months to elections.

In spite of the fear of community spread of coronavirus, the Electoral Commission, backed by a ruling by the Supreme Court, has embarked on an ambitious and expensive project to compile a new biometric voters’ register.