NADMO storms Kufuor house

Kofi Portophy, head of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), yesterday stormed the Airport residence of former President John Kufuor with a team of about 40 personnel, and slugged it out with former First Lady Theresa Kufuor.

Mr. Kufuor is currently out of the country attending separate meetings in the United States of America and Germany.

Portophy, a big-wig of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who reportedly threatened to demolish the residence of the Kufuors, yesterday led a team of BNI officials, journalists and other unidentified persons to inspect the building of the former President without prior notice to its owner and occupants.

Members of the visiting team took pictures of Mrs. Kufuor as well as the building and not even the former First Lady’s disapproval or the security officers stationed at the house could stop them.

Eventually, Portophy’s men engaged the security officers in a scuffle over who had the right of entry or to take pictures of the private residence of the ex-President which he has occupied since the 1980s.

Mrs. Kufuor, who was upstairs at the time the team arrived at her residence, was informed of their presence and when she asked what their mission was, Portophy reportedly claimed that he heard on an unnamed radio station that the gusts of wind that preceded last Tuesday night’s rain had pulled down a portion of the inner fence of the house and thus he was there to have a firsthand information of what exactly had happened and then take a decision on it.

Speaking to Daily Guide yesterday, a rather calm Mrs Kufuor noted: “So when he mentioned his name, I recognised him and asked ‘oh, so you are the man I saw on TV saying that you would demolish my house?’…and he replied that he had denied that but I heard him say it and I have not heard his denial.”

The former First Lady said she neither received a phone call nor invited the ‘visitors’, contending that they had also not given her prior notice of their visit so she was a bit taken aback especially because of the sheer number of the team crowding her gate.

“So I asked him [Portophy] to select one or two people for them to come in because it is my private residence and I cannot allow that whole crowd in,” she explained.

The former First Lady disclosed that in an attempt to provide shade and security for the property, she planted a number of thorny ornamental trees along the fence and that over the years, the trees had grown big and their roots crept beneath the foundation of the fence.

Mrs. Kufuor said the development had wobbled a portion of the fence and that during the fierce wind that preceded last Tuesday night’s storm, the weak portion of the fence came down.

She disclosed that it was the second time the roots had forced down a portion of the backyard fence.

When Daily Guide visited the scene yesterday, workers had dug deep into the foundation of the fence and were busily cutting off the roots and deciding on which of the trees should be completely uprooted.

The Statesman newspaper had earlier reported that Mr. Portophy will soon institute a court action to pull down or demolish ex-President Kufuor’s Airport residence because as he put it, “the house is standing on a waterway”.

Mr. Portophy has since claimed that what he actually said was that some buildings near the said residence were built on a waterway and that something needed to be done about them.