The ‘feud’ between Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, and suspended National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Paul Afoko, is far from over as the latter has threatened to expose the veteran journalist over what he described as “selective amnesia.”
Accusing Kweku Baako of being hired by persons the suspended National Chairman tagged “intolerant militants” in the NPP to distort facts and discredit him, Paul Afoko, according to a dependable source close to him, has vowed to take on the seasoned journalist for peddling lies about his engagement with the four Serbians invited into the country in 2014 by the biggest opposition party.
Mr Afoko’s renewed threats follow a front page story in the Monday, May 9, 2016 edition of the New Crusading Guide, intended to discredit the astute business magnate over claims he made in an interview with the African Watch Magazine. The suspended NPP national chairman in the interview with the magazine said he was opposed to his party inviting some Serbians into the country to give “special training” to selected party officials.
But according to Mr. Baako’s paper “Evidence available to The New Crusading Guide clearly establishes the fact that both Mr Afoko and Mr Agyepong spoke to the “party people” present at the event on the first day and indeed encouraged and motivated them to take the course serious. The first Day of the event was the same day the church service for Mrs Gladys Asmah was held at the Ridge Church, Accra… The evidence also clearly shows that at no point during Mr Afoko’s presence at and participation in the event did he (Afoko) in the presence of the two Serbians, ‘Admonished our party people and asked them to leave the hotel immediately and go home’ as he claimed in the Africawatch interview.” The New Crusading Guide reported.
However, sources close to Mr Afoko have rubbished the “supposed evidence published by Kweku Baako in his paper”, insisting that “it is not true that the first day of the event coincided with the church service for the late Gladys Asmah at Ridge Church.”
“The program lined-up Kweku Baako published indicated that the 4-day program started on July 7, 2014, but Gladys Asmah’s church service was not July 7 so how on earth can Kweku Baako say the two events took place on the same day?,” a source close to Afoko questioned.
“Again, the program lined-up he published never indicated anywhere that Afoko was billed to speak on the first day…so where is the evidence Kweku Baako has provided to discredit Afoko? Afoko has never denied anywhere that he did not address the meeting. Indeed when you read his interview with the Africawatch magazine, Afoko stated clearly that when Otiko took him to the hotel where the meeting took place, he addressed the people so the pictures Kweku Baako culled from the purported video and published on his front page could be true…but we want him to play the video so that the whole world will get to know what Afoko or Kwabena Agyepong said at the meeting,” the source added.
According to the source “when Otiko brought Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong to the hotel, it was Kwabena who advised Afoko, who was then enraged to calm down and not to show any anger, so he (Kwabena) elected himself to speak first before Afoko and when it got to the turn of Afoko to speak, he advised party members gathered there to channel their energies to engaging market women, hairdressers and others…that was what happened on the last day of the program not the things Kweku Baako is saying.”
The source could not fathom why Otiko Afisa Djaba and John Boadu, whose names were mentioned have maintained a deafening silence and have not made any attempt to dispel what Afoko has said, but Kweku Baako who was not present at the said meeting is now arrogating to himself the position of “chief of staff” of NPP internal issues “to be commenting on things he has no knowledge of yet wants Ghanaians to believe it as the gospel truth.”
“If Kweku Baako is serious about his new found project to discredit Afoko, I dare him to play the full length of the video unedited and let’s see if what he is saying supports the facts. In any case, what is stopping him from airing the video…I dare him to air it if he believes in the things that he is saying,” he stated.
The source added that Kweku Baako’s ongoing mission to discredit Afoko feeds into an elaborate scheme by the intolerant militants in the NPP, who he alleged, are plotting to get some participants from the various regions to testify that the suspended chairman indeed addressed the opening session of the meeting.
“We know why Kweku Baako is bent on doing what he is doing…they’re going round convincing some participants, especially from the Eastern region, to come and testify that Afoko had foreknowledge of the program and indeed addressed participants on the first day,” he revealed.
In a riposte to Kweku Baako when the issue first broke, Afoko stated that the seasoned journalist’s claim that he has in his possession audio and video recordings to prove that he (Afoko) knew of the training program beforehand smacks of wickedness and malice intended to mislead the good people of Ghana.
“The demeanor of Kweku Baako in this whole matter smacks of someone who does not have any facts whatsoever to counter the factual content of Mr. Afoko’s interview with the AfricaWatch magazine, and he must therefore tell his own untruths to further his agenda. It has become very clear that Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has, for some time, abandoned journalism for propaganda. He should stop holding himself out as an authority on NPP affairs,” Afoko said in a statement signed by his special assistant, Nana Yaw Osei.
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