No House for Kufuor!

The office of former President John Agyekum Kufuor has stated categorically that the government has not allocated any building for his use either as a residence or office. It has also not met the conditions for the resettlement of former President Kufuor as required by the Chinery Hesse Committee. It has further stated that nobody from the former President�s office has been shown a facility under rehabilitation for his use by the government. �Neither has anybody in his office reached an agreement with anybody in government on the rehabilitation of a facility for his use,� a statement issued from the Office of President Kufuor said yesterday. The statement comes in apparent response to claims made by Deputy Minister for Information, Mr James Agyenim Boateng to the effect that government was in consultation with former President Kufuor on a house he had been given for his use. It comes against the background that government recently offered to resettle former President Jerry John Rawlings, who had his official mansion burning down early this week. Mr Frank Agyekum, who signed the statement, said that it is therefore wrong and untrue for anybody to go about stating that such agreement or arrangement has been reached between the government and former President Kufuor�s office. �It is to be noted that contrary to the provisions of the constitution, the government has still not provided former President Kufuor with his resettlement package and he still lives in and operates from his private residence,� the statement concluded. Earlier, a Deputy Information Minister, James Agyenim Boateng had told Citi in Accra that renovation works for the office for former President Kufuor are far advanced. He said the office would be located at the Airport residential area but said he could not disclose the exact location for security reasons. Mr Agyenim Boateng said comments by the former President�s spokesperson, Frank Agyekum that no official communication has been made to the former President are untrue. He said some time last year, the office of the former President was officially notified on plans by government to provide an office for the former first gentleman. According to Mr Agyenim Boateng, �Officials of the former president and officials of the current administration sat down and agreed that it would be at the Airport residential area and when the renovations are over we would hand it over for the purposes for which he intends to put it.� Mr Agyenim Boateng added, �I cannot explain why Frank Agyekum is no aware of this. Besides if there is a communication problem then that certainly is not from our side.� He noted that �the agreement followed not too long after the National Security had taken over the building at Ridge which the former President was using at his office.�