Coke saga: NPP never awarded Dawood Jubilee House contract - Karbo

The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has denied ever giving Alhaji Muhammed Alamid Dawood – the businessman alleged to have masterminded the 12.5-kg Nayele cocaine haul – a contract in connection with the construction of the Jubilee House, now Flagstaff House – seat of the presidency – during the Kufuor administration.

A statement issued by a Deputy Communication Director of the Party, Anthony Karbo, described the allegation as false.

The party wondered why a member of the Government’s Communication team, Mr. Sam George, has been going about spreading that allegation.

“Sam George, who is paid by Ghanaian taxpayers, went on radio to desperately link this Alhaji Dawood to the New Patriotic Party,” the statement said.

“He claimed that Alhaji Dawood works with KELM Engineering, which was one of the contractors used by the NPP administration in the construction of the Jubilee House, the seat of the Presidency today. He went on to say, therefore, Alhaji Dawood was a financier of the NPP.

“This was pointed out to him as a blatant lie, but he continued to lie and was encouraged by the Presidency to do so,” the statement claimed.

It added: “KELM, the company whose reputation Samuel George consciously run down on numerous platforms, has since issued a denial, carried in the state-owned Daily Graphic of Monday 1st December.”

The NPP says: “The denial has established the fact that KELM was set up in 2009, when the NDC was in power and, therefore, could not have worked on the Jubilee House under the NPP administration as claimed by Samuel George. The NPP left office on January 7, 2009. Indeed, the Company went ahead to indicate that Mr. Dawood only joined the KELM in December 2013 and left this year.”

The party has, therefore, asked President John Mahama put a leash on Mr George by immediately calling him to order. “The President cannot pretend he is not aware of the deliberate lies being spewed in his name by the likes of Sam George. It is a mark of dishonesty on the part of the First Gentleman of the land,” the statement said.

Dawood was arrested on Sunday after touching down at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) from Lagos, Nigeria. He was allegedly the brain behind Nayele Ametefeh’s cocaine haul.

The Ghanaian lady, who also holds an Austrian passport, was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport with the stash of cocaine.

She has pleaded guilty in the Isleworth Crown Court and demanded early sentencing. The Court has set January 5, 2015 for Ametefeh’s sentencing.