The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, has denied putting up "a billionaire mansion'." Reacting to a publication headlined "Ofosu Ampofo grabs billionaire bansion" which appeared on the front page of a private newspaper, he said the said house which by all standards was not a billionaire's mansion belonged to him. In a letter to the Daily Graphic and other media houses in Koforidua, he indicated that he started constructing the house in 1998 and that for over the years, he had used his salaries and allowances as Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa, Deputy Eastern Regional minister and national organiser of the National Democratic Congress as well as proceeds from a livestock project to finance the building. According to the letter dated August 13, and signed by Miss, Boahemaa Intsiful, the Public Relations Officer of the Eastern Regional Administration, he stated that for instance, between 2001 and 2005 when the salaries of MPs were reviewed and payment effected in 2010, he had over GH¢50,000 which he, invested into the building. Mr Ofosu Ampofo, who said such an amount excluded the ex-gratia paid earlier to him in 2009, stated further that the plot on which the building was situated was originally two plots but in 1999, somebody sold half of it to a matron in a psychiatric hospital who had built a similar structure on it and had been occupying it for the past five years. Mr Ofosu Ampofo, who said he was prepared to take any journalist to the building to check its cost as against his earnings as a public officer over the years, called on the private newspaper to retract the story and render an unconditional apology to him. "I have been investing all these monies to develop my project yet I have not completed it and I want to leave it to the judgment of fellow Ghanaians if I have grabbed any state money to invest in the building. "If all workers of Ghana can use their salaries to build houses for themselves and their families, why can't I do the same? "You can also check the arrears I received as a Member of Parliament", the Regional Minister concluded. Source: Daily Graphic