By William
Yaw Owusu
Tuesday,
September 26, 2017
The reportedly poor treatment of journalists who
were attached to the presidency of John Dramani Mahama has been captured in the
report of the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee that investigated why the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) embarrassingly lost the December 7, 2016
general elections.
According to the report, former President John
Dramani Mahama, for reasons best known to him, never met the journalists who
were involved in a fatal accident at Afienya on their way from Ho where he had
attended EP Church programme.
The Botchwey Report states that President Mahama
“never met his own presidential press corps,” adding, “quarterly stipend meant
for the press corps was not disclosed until August 20, 2015,” the very day the
journalists were involved in the accident.
That gory accident claimed the life of Samuel Nuamah,
the presidential correspondent for Ghanaian
Times, while other reporters sustained various degrees of injury.
Samuel Nuamah left a young family of a wife and a
child behind.
Sources said some of the reporters who covered the
former president appeared before the Kwesi Botchwey Committee to vent their
frustrations over what they claimed to be maltreatment by John Mahama - failing
to meet and commiserate with them after such a traumatic incident.
Even a
report on the cause of the accident was never disclosed to the public.
The report also singled out Stanislav Xoexe Dogbe,
the trusted aide of Mr. Mahama - who was unofficial director of communications-
for ‘editing’ money given to journalists
who covered the presidency.
According to the report, which the NDC is keeping
like a state secret, “Stan Dogbe ‘edited’ money meant for victims of the
accident involving the Presidential Press Corps from GH¢50,000 that was
supposed to be given them, to GH¢5,000 and others got GH¢10,000.”
The report further said that “Presidential Press
Corps was told by Stan Dogbe that they were not part of the ‘system’ and that
they were privileged to be part of the Presidential Press Corps.”
It said, “Only four out of 34 members of the
Presidential Press Corps were given vehicles from a pool of about 200 vehicles
available for distribution to the press corps and others.
“President Mahama’s in-house communications team was
squandering resources of the President meant for communication strategy.”
According to
the report, “Dr. Omane Boamah and Stan Dogbe were the President’s undoing,”
adding, “The President was virtually naked with the two around him.”
Between Pages 26 and 27 of the 65-page Executive
Summary out of the 455-page report, it recounts how the behaviour of Stan Dogbe,
in particular, caused the then ruling party’s massive defeat.
“Doing away
with Stan Dogbe and Omane Boamah could have earned the President one million
votes so he didn’t have to look to Ashanti Region for the one million votes,”
the supposedly confidential report - a copy of which is in possession of DAILY
GUIDE, maintained.
“Omane Boamah and Stan Dogbe convinced the President
that he was more popular than the NDC ticket,” the report stated, adding, “The
two were also the shadow actors of the government.
“The President’s
inner circles were so intolerant that when you criticize the President, you are
condemned.”
Mahama’s
Comeback
The report recommended, “If John Mahama wants to
come back he should purge himself of Stan Dogbe and co, adding,.. “will be
surprised if President John Mahama decides to continue to keep Stan Dogbe, Dr.
Omane Boamah, Joyce Bawa Mogtari and still have hope of winning elections.”
The report has described President Mahama as living
like a “movies star” in the run-up to the crucial elections, which he lost
massively to then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
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