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President Akufo-Addo's complaint to the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference about the ethnocentric comment “Akyem Sakawa Boys” made by Hon Isaac Adongo in reference to the Agyapa Royalty deal and re-echoed by John Dramani Mahama means nothing to the aide of the former President.

The private legal practitioner, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe reacting to it on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show said President Akufo-Addo's complaint to the Catholic Bishops has fallen on deaf ears as the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is not prepared to let the Agyapa Royalty deal pass.

“He can report us to the UN Secretary-General, we will repeat it. This 'Agyabone' deal is bad; it is the retirement package for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the good people of Ghana will decide on December 7. Enough is enough, we are tired of them," he said.

“President Akufo-Addo could not tell the Catholic Bishops' that his MP and Minister during the voter registration exercise fired gun shots; he could not tell them that. We will not allow anybody to distract the people of this country from having honest conversations about the 'Agyabone' deal," he insisted.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has angrily condemned a reference to himself and his home townpeople as ‘Akyem Mafia’ and ‘Sakawa’ people by NDC Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo, which was amplified by former President John Mahama, who shared it on his Facebook timeline a few days ago.

The Bolgatanga Central MP, in a statement relating to the controversial Agyapa Roylaties deal, accused the President and his kith of forming a families-and-friends cartel to capture the mineral resources of the state via the deal.

At a meeting with the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference at the Jubilee House on Friday, 4 August 2020, President Akufo-Addo not only said he was “very disturbed” by the ethnocentric tagging of his ethnic group, but also said “that is the kind of language we don’t want in our politics.”

“Sometimes, one would hope when things come out, people will comment on them. The comment made by my opponent: ‘Akyem Sakawa’ people, I have not heard any public figure in this country or anybody comment on it.”

“If I was to get up to make a comment about northerners or Gonjas, you can imagine the uproar that will be in the country,” the President bemoaned.

According to him, free speech must not be seen from the perspective of allowing the opposition to go at the government at the least opportunity.

“If you criticise the government, no matter what you say, it is legitimate. If the government is to respond, that is somehow illegitimate,” the President complained, adding: “If the President opens his mouth and says something that is unacceptable, he should be reprimanded. In the same way, opposition politicians, if they conduct themselves by their utterances in an unacceptable manner, they should be brought to book.”