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Minister Snatches NPP Man's Wife

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 Source: Alfred Ogbamey, with file from Adofo Takyi


Victim petitions President Kufuor
Says it?s moral corruption and indiscipline of the highest order

President Kufuor is grappling with how to resolve a scandal involving his Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, Mr Thomas Broni, who stands accused by a leading Greater Accra Regional NPP member of having used his ministerial office to covet his wife, resulting in the break-down of his 17-year old marriage.

Mr Tony Osei-Tutu, member of the Greater Accra Regional Campaign Team for Election 2000 and a member of the Young Executive Forum, says the deputy Minister, believed to be in his late sixties, used his influence as a minister to win over his wife as his mistress.

He has therefore petitioned President Kufuor to help resolve the issue or allow him room to handle the issue in his own way, since efforts to resolve the issue through friends have failed.

?Sir, I have been able to withstand these traumatic events calmly so far by means of prayers and also by the realisation that my party is in power and it is headed by a man we all adore. For this reason a violent reaction might rock the boat. Therefore, I took counsel from friends a urging me to confide in a respected party elder to intervene on my behalf. The aim was to persuade Mr. Broni to abandon Martha for her to return home with the children? Osei-Tutu wrote in his petition.

But five months after the issue was brought to the notice of the President and weeks after the National Security Coordinator received a report from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) following a directive by the President that the matter be investigated, the issue is still unresolved.

Broni is one of the several returnee ministers in the Kufuor administration. Until his return from political exile in the UK, Broni who holds a BSC Degree and a post graduate diploma in Management Studies from Newcastle University held posts as a senior tutor at the Downsell School at Leyton in East London. He also ran a minicab and an agency selling newspapers before that, friends say. Locally, he is remembered as the MP for Asutifi in the Brong Ahafo Region in the Third Republican Limann administration.

The NPP-on-NPP sex scandal has been on the books since August 16, last year when Osei-Tutu petitioned the President to look into the issue.

The President, Concord gathered, subsequently ordered an investigation by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) into the issue. The BNI report, submitted late last year to the National Security Coordinator, sources say, confirmed the allegations raised by the petitioner (details later).

Independent investigations by the Concord, including crosschecks with the landlady of the house that the Minister rented for Ms Nkrumah to move out of her matrimonial home also lent credence to allegations that the minister facilitated the separation between the couple.

But the deputy Minister in various interviews with the Concord during which he said attempts were underway to resolve the issue, denied knowledge of the woman. He also denied any relationship with her.

Following the conflicting statements, this paper called the Minister for a final interview early November. Though he was evasive during that interview, the Minister denied allegations that Tony?s wife was his lover, saying he never had an affair or relationship with her. He claimed Osei-Tutu was making false allegations against him though he could not explain why.

Ms Nkrumah herself was equally evasive when the issue was brought up last Friday morning after weeks on her trail. She would not deny nor affirm that she has or had a relationship with the Minister when the issue was brought up. Instead, she however requested for a full-scale interview the following day at the Mallam Atta Market in Accra. She was however nowhere the interview site when reached Saturday afternoon. When reached later on her mobile phone, she denied being the wife of Osei-Tutu.

?Does having children with somebody make the person your husband?? she asked rhetorically when the issue was brought up. Asked why she used to wear the ring of the man she claimed was never her husband and why she stayed with him for 17 years if they were not married, Ms Nkrumah would not answer.

In his petition to the President, Osei-Tutu alleged that Mr Broni destroyed the sanctity of his matrimonial home by visiting his wife at their home unknown to him.

Speaking to the Concord, Osei-Tutu, who said he had done more than enough for the party?s image by keeping the issue to himself all this while, said the minister?s behaviour runs counter to the Vice President?s campaign against indiscipline.

?It is moral corruption and indiscipline of the highest order? and people who display such weakness have no business being in power, he argued. According to him, his greatest shock was that long after he had made the Minister aware that he knew he was having an affair with his wife, the minister kept the affair going on without a care.

He said Broni has broken his home, ?disrupted my family life and snatched away the only woman in my life,? leaving the two children out of the marriage, aged six and three, torn between the parents

The petition, which led to the order from the President to National Security to investigate the allegations late last year, has been kept hushed-hushed following speculations that there are similar cases against other public officers.

Next week: The story of how Broni rented a house for Ms Nkrumah to move in and how the minister facilitated the opening of a c500 million-credit facility for Ms Nkrumah at the Ghana National Procurement Agency (GNPA) plus BNI report and more.


Victim petitions President Kufuor
Says it?s moral corruption and indiscipline of the highest order

President Kufuor is grappling with how to resolve a scandal involving his Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, Mr Thomas Broni, who stands accused by a leading Greater Accra Regional NPP member of having used his ministerial office to covet his wife, resulting in the break-down of his 17-year old marriage.

Mr Tony Osei-Tutu, member of the Greater Accra Regional Campaign Team for Election 2000 and a member of the Young Executive Forum, says the deputy Minister, believed to be in his late sixties, used his influence as a minister to win over his wife as his mistress.

He has therefore petitioned President Kufuor to help resolve the issue or allow him room to handle the issue in his own way, since efforts to resolve the issue through friends have failed.

?Sir, I have been able to withstand these traumatic events calmly so far by means of prayers and also by the realisation that my party is in power and it is headed by a man we all adore. For this reason a violent reaction might rock the boat. Therefore, I took counsel from friends a urging me to confide in a respected party elder to intervene on my behalf. The aim was to persuade Mr. Broni to abandon Martha for her to return home with the children? Osei-Tutu wrote in his petition.

But five months after the issue was brought to the notice of the President and weeks after the National Security Coordinator received a report from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) following a directive by the President that the matter be investigated, the issue is still unresolved.

Broni is one of the several returnee ministers in the Kufuor administration. Until his return from political exile in the UK, Broni who holds a BSC Degree and a post graduate diploma in Management Studies from Newcastle University held posts as a senior tutor at the Downsell School at Leyton in East London. He also ran a minicab and an agency selling newspapers before that, friends say. Locally, he is remembered as the MP for Asutifi in the Brong Ahafo Region in the Third Republican Limann administration.

The NPP-on-NPP sex scandal has been on the books since August 16, last year when Osei-Tutu petitioned the President to look into the issue.

The President, Concord gathered, subsequently ordered an investigation by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) into the issue. The BNI report, submitted late last year to the National Security Coordinator, sources say, confirmed the allegations raised by the petitioner (details later).

Independent investigations by the Concord, including crosschecks with the landlady of the house that the Minister rented for Ms Nkrumah to move out of her matrimonial home also lent credence to allegations that the minister facilitated the separation between the couple.

But the deputy Minister in various interviews with the Concord during which he said attempts were underway to resolve the issue, denied knowledge of the woman. He also denied any relationship with her.

Following the conflicting statements, this paper called the Minister for a final interview early November. Though he was evasive during that interview, the Minister denied allegations that Tony?s wife was his lover, saying he never had an affair or relationship with her. He claimed Osei-Tutu was making false allegations against him though he could not explain why.

Ms Nkrumah herself was equally evasive when the issue was brought up last Friday morning after weeks on her trail. She would not deny nor affirm that she has or had a relationship with the Minister when the issue was brought up. Instead, she however requested for a full-scale interview the following day at the Mallam Atta Market in Accra. She was however nowhere the interview site when reached Saturday afternoon. When reached later on her mobile phone, she denied being the wife of Osei-Tutu.

?Does having children with somebody make the person your husband?? she asked rhetorically when the issue was brought up. Asked why she used to wear the ring of the man she claimed was never her husband and why she stayed with him for 17 years if they were not married, Ms Nkrumah would not answer.

In his petition to the President, Osei-Tutu alleged that Mr Broni destroyed the sanctity of his matrimonial home by visiting his wife at their home unknown to him.

Speaking to the Concord, Osei-Tutu, who said he had done more than enough for the party?s image by keeping the issue to himself all this while, said the minister?s behaviour runs counter to the Vice President?s campaign against indiscipline.

?It is moral corruption and indiscipline of the highest order? and people who display such weakness have no business being in power, he argued. According to him, his greatest shock was that long after he had made the Minister aware that he knew he was having an affair with his wife, the minister kept the affair going on without a care.

He said Broni has broken his home, ?disrupted my family life and snatched away the only woman in my life,? leaving the two children out of the marriage, aged six and three, torn between the parents

The petition, which led to the order from the President to National Security to investigate the allegations late last year, has been kept hushed-hushed following speculations that there are similar cases against other public officers.

Next week: The story of how Broni rented a house for Ms Nkrumah to move in and how the minister facilitated the opening of a c500 million-credit facility for Ms Nkrumah at the Ghana National Procurement Agency (GNPA) plus BNI report and more.

Source: Alfred Ogbamey, with file from Adofo Takyi