President John Dramani Mahama has broken his silence over widespread rumours that there is bad blood between him and his Vice Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur and the two sometimes throw verbal blows at cabinet meetings.
There were rumours of deep-seated rift between the president and his vice and reports claim the relationship went so bad that the latter, at one time, contemplated resigning and leaving the Flagstaff House in protest.
The issue went viral in social media at the weekend with some reports indicating the disagreements between the two topmost personalities had gone so bad that they could be severing their relationship ahead of the 2016.
It cited a publication by the Al-Hajj as source of the report; a claim that has been strongly refuted by the Accra-based newspaper, which subsequently issued a disclaimer on the false story.
“The Al Hajj can report that there were hot exchanges between President John Mahama and Vice President Amissah Arthur at an emergency cabinet meeting before President Mahama embarked for Ethiopia for the African Union Conference, on the state of the Economy and the poor performance of some ministers.”
“The relationship between the President and his vice can best be described as strained despite efforts by senior NDC figures to broker a truce. Relations are said to be so bad that the President does not want to be seen at any function with the Vice and has insisted for their schedules to be separate as much as possible.
“According to sources the Vice President told the President blatantly that he has surrounded himself with sycophants and apologists who did not have a clue and were not serious about tackling the current problems in the economy.
“In a rare display of fire not normally seen from a quiet man, he called for some ministers to be sacked including Seth Terkper the Finance Minister, Emmanuel Buah the energy minister for his handling of the energy crisis and Mr Mark Woyongo whose sycophancy he said had reach abnormal levels!
“Reports say the President got angry and banged his fist on the table shouting” You don’t tell me what to do. You think if I had my way you will be my Vice President? What do you do apart from sleeping in your office and not doing anything unless you are asked to do something? Get lost!!!,” portions of the false story attributed to the Al-Hajj read.
However, speaking exclusively to The Publisher, President Mahama strongly denied having a frosty relationship with his vice.
The president told the paper in a Whatsapp interview that his relationship with the vice president has been perfect, describing the rumours as ‘absolutely false’.
“Absolutely false-relationship with my vice-perfect,” President Mahama replied when the paper asked him to comment on the said rift yesterday (Sunday) morning.
“It’s obvious we are both of a calm disposition. We both are not personalities who would shout at any person if we disagreed with them. Why would we shout at each other in cabinet? Besides, there are no issues of contention between us,” President Mahama stated.
Meanwhile, Food and Agriculture minister Fiifi Kwetey who allegedly restrained the vice president from attacking the president at cabinet meeting has dismissed the report, describing it as complete rubbish.
“The Two gentlemen respect themselves and will not settle their disagreement violently,” he added.
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