Mahama owes no apology to Ghanaians- Allotey Jacobs

The Central Regional Communications Director of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Allotey Jacobs, has dismissed calls by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that President John Dramani Mahama should render an apology to the erstwhile Kufuor-led administration following his relocation to the Flagstaff House.

Allotey Jacobs could not accept the demands on the President, stressing President Mahama has done nothing wrong to relocate his office to the Flagstaff House, then Golden Jubilee House.

According to him, it was incumbent on the President to reside in the Presidential Palace which was abandoned for the past four years.

The President, he said, gave an impression of his departure before the elections and upon taking up a new mantle of leadership in the country has honoured his promise to Ghanaians.

Reacting to the recent turn-around by the governing party on Peace FM Thursday evening, Allotey Jacobs said on Peace FM News that the President had since last year hinted the nation about his decision to redirect his steps to the Flagstaff House and therefore what he sought to do yesterday was just in conformity with his earlier position on the issue.

“I have several times said that the faces of President Evans Atta Mills and President John Mahama differ. Though President Mahama will carry the visionary part of Prof Mills. As Ghanaians, we have to bear in mind that President Mahama has his visions and ideas. He has his style of administration; he has his style of approach to issues.” he said.

Alluding to the late President John Evans Atta Mills’ position on the location of the palace, he indicated that the late President’ s bone of contention with the Kufour government concerning the establishment of such edifice to serve as the official seat of government, was about the “profligate” sums of money that were pumped into the construction.

He explained that “Professor Mills as the then Presidential candidate for the NDC had a problem with the cost of the construction of Jubilee House. So, he used words as profligate expenditure.”

He further said that the late President Mills’ leadership differs from the incumbent President’s era, and since it’s now the reign of President Mahama, his decision to move to the Flagstaff House should be respected.

To him, the edifice which now remains the official seat of government is “for the President, not for a political party,” adding that the NDC is solidly behind him.

The multi-million dollar edifice was constructed under the leadership of former President John Agyekum Kufour to house Heads of State but several critics raised eyebrows over its safety measures.

Expanding further on the President’s departure from the Osu Castle, Allotey Jacobs noted that the seemingly rotten nature of the place necessitated his action.

“We will not leave it. That is what President Mahama is saying; that he will not leave that edifice to rot and therefore he will go in and occupy it,” he added.