Zita denies Daily Guide story

The Minister of Tourism Mrs Zita Okai-Koi has debunked media reports that she is keeping her official bodyguard and maid servant with her in the United States where she is currently waiting to give birth.

The Daily Guide reported Friday that the minister is occupying a Government of Ghana facility in that country - at the cost to the nation.

But Mrs Okai-Koi says the report is a malicious fabrication.

She told Accra-based Radio Gold she was in the US for an official visit but that the visit coincides with her leave.

According to her, she had a meeting with the World Bank in Washington and took advantage to attend another invitation to New York.

The minister said contrary to Daily Guide's report, she stayed with a friend in Washington.

Asked why she stayed with a friend when she was on an official visit, Mrs Okai-Koi said, "when I arrived in Washington, my friend, actually she is not a friend, she works with the Ghana mission, so they picked me up and I had my meetings in Washington."

She said her official meetings were over and that she is now deciding where to go and spend her leave.

The tourism minister will not answer whether she is on maternity leave, insisting, "I am entitled to three months' leave."

The Daily Guide reporter, Halifax Ansah however insists he stands by his story.

He told Joy News' Araba Koomson that the minister's argument that she did not travel with a bodyguard were warped.