MP: 'First lady is putting up warehouse at FH'

The Member of Parliament for Bekwai, Joe Osei Owusu, on Wednesday March 2 alleged on the floor of parliament that First Lady Lordina Mahama was putting up a building at the premises of the Flagstaff House for personal and private use.

According to the MP, Mrs Mahama is using her position and office at the Flagstaff House to operate an NGO.

The MP made the allegation during a debate on the State of the Nation Address.

He told the House: “Mr Speaker, I wanted to observe that one of the acts of impunity is the president’s wife building a warehouse within the four walls of the compound for her private NGO.”

The Bekwai legislator stood his grounds in an exclusive interview with Class News’ parliamentary correspondent Ekow Annan and demanded an investigation into the matter.

“One of the pieces of evidence supporting the claim of impunity – doing acts that are not sanctioned by the rules of law – is that the First Lady has put up a warehouse within the four walls of the Flagstaff House ostensibly for use of her NGO,” he insisted.

“I am saying the NGO is a private registration, it is not a government of Ghana agency, and the warehouse is not one of the structures that was approved to be constructed at the Flagstaff House, the seat of government, but the First Lady has done that and it is standing there right now …I know for a fact it belongs to the First Lady.”

Asked if he had evidence to back his claims, Mr Osei Owusu questioned: “How can I provide evidence of something other than the fact that it is standing there and the fact that it was put up not by the state. That whole Flagstaff House, the design and the funds were approved in this House, that structure is not part of it. Nobody has approved an addition to it in this House and it is standing there. It is being used by the First Lady.”

However, government in a sharp rebuttal rejected the allegations levelled against the First Lady. A press release from the presidency read: “The attention of the Office of the President has been drawn to a mischievous claim being circulated by Minority Members of Parliament through some media houses that the First Lady has constructed a private warehouse within the precincts of the Flagstaff House – the seat of government.

“There cannot be, and there has not been any private construction within the Presidential household. What is referred to as a warehouse is actually a storehouse for the use of the Office of the President, and constructed by the State.”