Audio Attachment Play the attached audio to listen to Andrew Awuni's explanations.
As the National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Haruna Iddrisu presses legal buttons against President J.A. Kufuor over a week-long ‘absence’ during a tour of Europe, Presidential spokesperson, Andrew Awuni has explained that he was in London.
A press statement from the President’s Press Office had announced that President Kufuor was to leave Accra on Friday, 14th September, 2007, for Ottawa, Canada, on an official visit that was to see him hold bilateral talks with Canadian leaders. The President left the country for the specified period, however he never got to Canada for which Haruna says the President was treating Parliament with contempt and must explain his whereabouts in those ‘absent days’ or face contempt charges.
Haruna said if the President informed Parliament he was traveling to a destination for some activity and did something else, it bordered on falsehood.
But Andrew Awuni, who sounded baffled why anyone would stretch the issue beyond the many explanations he had previously offered, explained again on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday morning, that the President spent the period in London, after calling off the Canada trip owing to some challenges that confronted the private sector organisation of the trip.
He said President Kufuor was scheduled to travel to London, Canada and to New York for the UN General Assembly, and owing to the planning hitches, he spent the time in London meeting with British officials over the up-coming EU-AU summit.
Awuni emphasised that apart from informing Parliament about his pending absence, he spent the period productively and in the interest of the nation and continent. He therefore urged Haruna to rather find something more responsible to do rather than raise red herrings and indulge in trivialities.
“If there is anything illegal about what the President has done, as a lawyer, Haruna knows what is required of him.”
(You can to listen to Andrew Awuni's explanations in a discussion with Joy FM's Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah.)
