Victoria Hammah recorded for 90 days

Credible information available to the New Statesman indicates that the private conversations of the embattled former deputy Minister of Communications, Victoria Hammah, were recorded continuously for a period spanning three months.

The New Statesman can also report that certain persons are in possession of all the recordings for the period, which they say contain more “explosive materials which can bring down the entire Mahama administration in a second.”


Indeed, as of yesterday morning, the New Statesman had gathered that President John Dramani Mahama had allegedly “pleaded” with an owner of media networks not to allow any of his stations to air the 3-month long recordings.


The said owner (name withheld), who is said to be a friend of President Mahama, according to sources at the radio station, ordered his staff not to air the other sections of the 3-month long tape in deference to President Mahama’s request.


It remains unclear if President John Mahama has made similar requests to other media networks in the country. But a radio programme producer we contacted yesterday confirmed his station had got the entire tape and would soon be releasing the recordings in batches.


The New Statesman can also report that prior to the airing of what has now been termed as “Vikileaks”, a staff at the radio station in question called Victoria Hammah to inform her about the existence of a recording of her.

However, according to the staff, who spoke to the New Statesman on condition of anonymity, Victoria Hammah dared the station to go ahead and play the tape, allegedly insisting that she had nothing to hide because she had not been involved in any scandalous affair.


The New Statesman is also reliably informed that the 30-minute long tape in circulation has been edited as the original tape spans a total of 42 minutes. Very sensitive portions, according to our source, have been taken out from the recording, where names of very prominent Ministers in the Mahama administration were allegedly mentioned by Victoria Hammah to have indulged themselves in dubious deals, and amassing millions of Ghana Cedis as a result.


What has been aired so far captures the dismissed deputy communications minister telling a friend that Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, played an instrumental role in securing victory for President Mahama and the National Democratic Congress in the 2012 presidential election petition trial and that she even saw the judges before the judgment was given.


Mrs Oye Lithur, wife of the president’s counsel, Tony Lithur, has denied the claims made against her, describing them as “outrageous and preposterous.”


Those in possession of the entire 90-day recordings say other information on the tape is more explosive than what is now in the public domain.