I have no hand in attack — Asomah-Cheremeh

The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, has denied allegations that he has a hand in the assault of Mr Kwame Baffoe, alias Abrᴐnyɛ DC, which has resulted in his hospitalisation.

“Let me state emphatically that I have no intention to ever hurt Abrᴐnyɛ in any shape or form. This is democracy, and as a lawyer, I fully understand its tenets and will not use such a crude methodology to bulldoze my way through,” he stated.

“Let me mince no words, I have no hand in whatever happened to the young man. I had no knowledge of the alleged assault till I had a call from a third party. I am not responsible for that uncalled-for conduct. It is very bad as same is wrong in law, and suspects should be dealt with according to the law,” he emphasised.

In a statement in reaction to allegations by the victim that the regional minister had ordered for him to be brutalised because the alleged leader of the gang, Jafaru Yakubu, “is my boy,” Mr Asomah-Cheremeh stated that he had his security detail and Jafaru was not one of them.

He rather stated that: “Information filtering in has it that Abrᴐnyɛ was attacked for insulting the Regional Chief Imam on radio and failing to apologise after several appeals. It had nothing to do with me or anything related to me.”

Disappointment

Mr Asomah-Cheremeh said he was disappointed when Abrᴐnyɛ DC granted an interview after the incident, in which he categorically accused him of ordering his boys to commit the act.

“Let us look at this simple logic. Assuming without admitting that I would want Abrᴐnyɛ to be taught a lesson, why would I employ the services of my ‘boys’, knowing that I would be the prime suspect?” he questioned.

“If I want something bad done to Abrᴐnyɛ DC, I would not have hired ‘thugs’ always seen with me to perpetrate such an act. I would be the first person to be accused if I did that,” he observed.

Allegations

Mr Asomah-Cheremeh explained that allegations which informed Abrᴐnyɛ to bastardise him in public had been responded to, and in due course, the outcome would be made known to the general public.

“Is it not strange that someone like Abrᴐnyɛ would receive a call from Jafaru, threatening to deal with him if he ever steps foot at Atebubu, and he failed to record and lodge a complaint to the police? One is tempted to believe that Abrᴐnyɛ ‘s continued efforts to denigrate me informed him to steal that incredible line into the equation,” he noted.

He stated that although it was true that he acted as the said Jafaru’s lawyer and got him out when he was arrested sometime ago, he did that in his capacity as the then regional chairman of the party when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) confiscated an outboard motor belonging to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) prior to the 2012 election, which, according to him, happened on the Volta Lake near Kajeji in the Volta Region.

“The security personnel at the time would not act upon our complaint to them after six months. Jafaru and a few others were later arrested and charged for confiscating some outboard motors which belonged to the NDC,” he added.

The regional minister said those arrested were arraigned before court, and as a lawyer and the regional chairman of the NPP then, he had to defend them and successfully got them out eventually, else they would have been remanded and imprisoned.

“It is instructive to note that the regional youth organiser of the NPP, Abrᴐnyɛ, was also involved in some issues on three different occasions, and I got him out as regional chairman, probono. Per the logic he is advancing, then in those cases which I defended him over and got him out make him my boy too,” he stressed.

Appeal

Mr Asomah-Cheremeh, therefore, appealed to Abrᴐnyɛ and all those helping him to assassinate his character that he needed peace of mind to effectively carry out the work of the government while the security persons dealt with what happened to him, adding that his interest was to ensure that the law enforcement agencies expedited action on the issue.

He stated that though disturbing, “I am not perturbed by such false allegations against my person and the work I do.”