Ghana: Afriyie Akoto Clarifies 'Why I Want to Be President' Comment

The Campaign Team of Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has clarified a viral video on the flagbearer hopeful's interview and urged the public to focus on the important substance of his message that can move the country forward, and disregard such a "trivial issue."

"Over the past few days, a short video featuring the immediate past Minister of Food and Agriculture and New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential hopeful, DrAkoto, answering a question on why he is running for presidency has gone viral," it said.

A statement issued by the team copied the Ghanaian Times said.

The statement said "the content of the nine seconds video, which formed part of an hour long interview he granted on Joy News, seemed to have misrepresented the real intent and purpose of a rather successful discussion where the candidate creditably distinguished himself on his vision and mission for entering the presidential race.

"It is clear the clip was designed to misrepresent the vision and create mischief and disaffection for the flagbearer hopeful since the nineseconds video was part of an hour long interview in which he shares his vision for the Presidency," it alleged.

The statement noted that prior to his appearance on the programme, DrAkoto had spent two-and-a-half hours espousing his vision and mission; which dwelled largely on using the agricultural sector as the fulcrum to transform the economy of the country and intended to execute the laudable ideas, he had been clearly articulated in the 16-page presentation delivered at the University of Professional Studies,Accra Auditorium.

It stated that nevertheless, once their attention was drawn to the video, they decided to clarify and set the records straight because anyone who had followed the campaign of DrAkoto would attest to the fact that, his key message had been to lead the NPP first, deal with the internal challenges which threatened the political fortunes of the party before focusing on the national elections.

According to the statement, the NPP had lots of challenges to deal with, particularly in terms of addressing issues that led to its relatively poor performance in the 2020elections,it's only when this is done that the party could achieve the agenda of "Breaking the 8," it added.

"We wish to reiterate that candidate DrAkoto is focused on his vision and mission to rescue the NPP and Ghana at large and will not be distracted and we entreat the public to disregard such trivial matters and rather focus on the important substance which can help move the country forward," the statement said.

BY TIMES REPORTER

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