NPP Boss Charged

Nana Ohene Ntow, NPP General Secretary

Government has gone after Nana Ohene Ntow, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), demanding from him an amount of GH¢96,000, being the accumulated rental for “illegally occupying a public bungalow between 2001 and 2009”, according to the Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing.

The one-time Government Spokesperson on Finance is being charged a commercial rate of GH¢1000 for eight years for allowing his wife “to turn the bungalow into a small scale 'shitor' and fried rice factory” as claimed by Dr. Hannah Bissiw, the Deputy Minister.

Although Nana Ohene Ntow has rejected the claims by the Deputy Minister, she adds that a correspondence demanding documentation to support his legal occupation of the property has not been responded to.

Nana Ntow, the Deputy Minister pointed out, continued to be in occupation of the bungalow even after ceasing to be a public official.

Speaking to CitiFM, an Accra radio station, Dr. Bissiw, a Cuban trained veterinary doctor, said “the time elapsed so we have accompanied that letter with another letter asking him to pay for the rent from 2001 when he occupied the place, to 2009 when he left the bungalow”.

On the allegation that the General Secretary had turned a portion of the bungalow into a small scale “shitor” factory, she said “we are going to surcharge him a commercial rate because he turned the place into a commercial centre.

We are looking at a GH¢1000 per month for the eight years because, unless he gives us letters to prove otherwise, we consider that he lived there illegally, which we consider as squatting and he is going to be surcharged for the number of years that he lived there”.

In his reaction to the demands by the Deputy Minister, Nana Ohene Ntow, while speaking to JoyFM yesterday, said he occupied the said property when he was appointed Government Spokesperson on Finance by the President of the Republic of Ghana.

“My appointment was as Government's Spokesman and that appointment was made by the President of the Republic. As part of the condition, I was to receive a fully furnished official accommodation,” he said, adding, “A certain amount of my electricity, water, telephone and health bills were supposed to be paid by the government but for that whole period that I was a public official, I bore all those costs myself.”

Promising to respond accordingly, the General Secretary hinted that he had to settle an accumulated electricity bill before power was reconnected to the house.

Nana Ohene Ntow was recently dragged to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) over the murderous commotion at the Agbogbloshie Market.

Tongues are already wagging and questions posed over whether this is not a new phase of political victimization against the NPP Scribe.

It would be recalled that Nana Ntow advised some returning squatters of the Agbogbloshie Market to contact the Police before doing so.

Ironically, he was arrested by the Police for questioning when trouble erupted at the slum and lives lost.

After being made to write a statement, the Police released him and told him that they would invite him when the need arises.

He has been vociferous on a number of political issues which have tended to be critical of a number of government policies and decisions.

By A.R. Gomda