Obiri Boahen defends ‘reckless’ chat with NDC’s Kwaku Skirt

Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party(NPP) Nana Obiri Boahen has said his integrity and popularity in his party will not be plummeted despite a supposed ‘reckless’ comment he recently made about the party in a private conversation.

“My party has confidence in me; my party trust me very well and I’m still being taken care of by the party. And let me put it on record that the party leadership has decided that for me, I’ll always remain at the party headquarters and serve the party at that level,” he told host Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM Tuesday.

In what seems to be a subterfuge, the Deputy Scribe of the party was tricked to echo his sentiments and ill feelings about the party in a private chat with an opposition NDC member[Kwaku Skirt].

Nana Obiri Boahen in that recorded conversation told Kwaku Skirt he was being unfairly treated as an official of the governing party, while his colleagues are supposedly grabbing and making economic gains from the party’s incumbency.

“Till date I don’t even have an office at the party’s headquarters. To be frank, i have been using my own private car, and the party has not given me any official car for my use as Deputy General Secretary. I buy my own fuel. And even on official trips abroad, I’ll be left to my fate. When I recently went to Germany, it was an NPP Member who bought ticket for me. I went to Spain, Dortmund it was an individual that processed my trip. I do virtually everything, and I don’t remember the last time I received a monthly salary from the party. Even when we went to Cape Coast recently on an official assignment, as a member of the resolution committee, they gave me only GHc 3000, and received a paltry sum of GHc 2000 for fuel. So in all I was given just GHc5000, while the Flag Staff House had given headquarters an amount of about GHc 50 billion. I’m only watching them; what is happening now is called “grabbing grabbing” that is what they are doing. I have not even been contacted by any Minister for any contract or whatsoever. I have been handling late J.B Danquah Adu’s case from day one, and I have been using my own resources for court, and even give tips for Journalists. Nobody cares about that case. I have been following up the case and I can tell you i have an impending trip abroad and I even had to rescheduled my flight to make it to court on 21st, March in J.B’s case. I’ll have to pay the penalty for rescheduling that flight, and I’ll have to bear that cost alone.”

Reacting to the audio-tape conversation circulating in the media, Nana Obiri Boahen said he tactfully opened up in that conversation in order to divulge classified information from Kwaku Skirt, asking the public to disregard the controversial details of their conversation.

“What i said in that conversation is not true reflection of what is going on in my party. But sometimes as mature politician, if you want to squeeze information out of people you need to exaggerate something, because when you show disinterest in what he’s saying, he will not give you enough information. But lying and giving him false information, he was able to give me detailed information. Infact the information I had from him has been very beneficial to me as an individual and to my party as well. What he said about the NDC concerning the plans and strategies of the NDC party, I have it all and I won’t discuss on the airwaves; I’m too mature as a politician.”

“But for portraying himself as a member of my party and pulling out an NPP card to deceive me, that is fraudulent. Secondly there were certain things he said that i will not say it on air because of my maturity. But I can say without any hesitation that the party is taking very good care of me. But in all fairness, this is not a credible character for anyone to be making political capital out of private conversation i had with such person. My Acting General Secretary, John Boadu called me telling how dangerous, this person was, and later reminded me that it was this same person who led a demonstration in the US against Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko. And Appiah Stadium also called me with a private line to warn me about this character.