Castle ‘Dashes’ Cash, Cars

The seat of government, Castle, was on Thursday a scene of an uproar when a prominent National Democratic Congress (NDC) serial caller, Dr Yaw Asemfofro, went on rampage because he was refused access to the Presidency to take his monetary allocation for serial callers.

Asemfofro, a local herbal peddler, said he could not understand why he and a few other colleagues would be prevented from entering the Osu Castle to collect their share of monies and cars being distributed to serial callers for inundating radio listeners with apologetic NDC messages.

He claimed that Baffour-Bonnie, a special assistant to Vice President John Mahama, had dropped his name along with other serial callers at the Castle security post, with the directive that they should not be allowed access to the seat of government for the ‘spoils of war.’

He said Baby Ansabah of New Punch newspaper can testify, as he was a witness to the Castle gate drama on Thursday.

Pointing at his earlier apology to former President John Agyekum Kufuor as reason for the party’s action against him, Dr. Yaw Asemfofro, 51, and father of 12, spilled the beans on the airwaves of Oman FM radio station yesterday when he and a colleague NDC serial caller, Dzidzor Tay, clashed over why according to her, the herbal peddler should wash the dirty linen of the NDC in public.

Dr. Asemfofro was part of a number of serial callers who turned up at the Castle to collect golden handshakes of money and cars from their Castle employers when the incident occurred.

He was unlucky because whereas his colleagues received GH¢500 (¢5million) each, he was not only denied the largesse, but had the door shut on him.

Other serial callers whose names now dot the Castle guests’ list as persona non grata and who were turned away on the day under review, according to him, were Mordecai and Maa Lizzy of Tema.

Dr. Asemfofro, as the serial caller is fondly called, disclosed that serial callers had been promised 50 vehicles to be drawn from the Tema Port’s seized vehicles pool. “They have assured us about the cars. Nobody can deny this,” he said, stressing that he was only saying the truth and that he was ready to shed his blood for the sustenance of the NDC.

“You may ask Baffour-Bonnie about the car promise for serial callers,” he said.

He told DAILY GUIDE in a follow up interview that nine vehicles had already been given out to some of his colleagues including Mustapha, Hamza and Anita.

Giving an insight into the new lifestyles of serial callers in the NDC and the discrimination against him, he recalled how Hon. Mahama Ayariga brought ¢80 million for distribution to other serial callers at a meeting held at First Choice Hotel, Dzorwulu, adding that since he played a yeoman’s role in the affairs of the NDC, he deserved better treatment from the leadership of the party.

As an adherent of a fetish, Dr. Asemfofro said he would not lie about things which did not happen, pointing out that some serial callers who partook in the Ayariga largesse were Hamza, Mohammed and Carlos.

Another serial caller, Mustapha, he said, was the man who received and distributed the money among the beneficiary serial callers.

The late Uncle Ben received a paltry ¢100,000 from the Ayariga money, he explained.

“All of us as serial callers supported the cause of the NDC when it was in opposition and so there should be no discrimination in the distribution of benefits. Why should my name be deleted from the list of car beneficiaries when all of us worked for the party?” he asked.

He challenged skeptics to ask Mr. Baffour-Bonnie whether his name was not deleted from the list of beneficiaries.

According to him, he found nothing wrong with apologizing to former President Kufuor when indeed he had offended him by hooting at him.

“What was wrong with apologizing to him? He gave me an amount of ¢1 million when I visited and apologized to him. Why should I refuse money from the then President when the man in the first place is old enough to be my father?” he asked rhetorically.

Things are so bad today that those who suffered for the NDC should be treated in a better manner, he noted.

“Mr. Antwi Boasiako, deputy Minister of Employment, who was then at Prof’s office queried me for apologizing to Kufuor but I find nothing wrong with that,” he said, adding that he took part in all NDC demonstrations including organizing a one-man demonstration when Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings went to court on one occasion.

“What is wrong with the NDC giving me a car? I deserve it, having served the party for all this while,” he said.

“Party men can get angry and take any action against me, I do not care,” he said, pointing out that he does not understand why Prof Mills keeps asking them to be patient “when others are eating”. “Why should I be prevented from entering the Castle? Baby Ansabah was present when this happened,” he stressed.

Dzidzor Tay, when she joined in the radio talk, expressed disgust that Dr. Asemfofro would wash the party’s dirty linen in public when according to her, he should have passed through the proper channels.

“Things are not good, we know, but Mills has been giving him money. He is being pushed by someone to do what he is doing,” she said.

But Dr. Asemfofro retorted that she had been rewarded with a trip to the US to which she disagreed. She explained that she went to the US through her father-in-law when she was being harassed by the previous administration.

Dzidzor asked why Asemfofro disappeared for a long time and suddenly surfaced, casting doubts about his true NDC colours.

Meanwhile, Mahama Ayariga has denied that there was a meeting of serial callers at the Castle.

“There was no meeting of serial callers because this is not where serial callers meet,” stating that the Presidency must be kept out of such discussions.

During an engagement with Joy FM yesterday he said the mission of the serial callers was to seek his permission to rebuff the bad press against him over his recent trip to Bawku.