The Spokesperson for the President of Ghana, Mahama Ayariga has rubbished media reports that the government is in the process of ordering 4 new jets at the cost of $680m from the United States. He has also questioned the authenticity of the US based website, www.defenseindustrydaily.com, which broke the news of the intended deal.
The website which quoted the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) as announcing Ghana’s official request on Tuesday, however, indicated that a DSCA request is not a contract.
According to the US website that focuses on military purchasing news for defense procurement managers and contractors, www.defenseindustrydaily.com, if the US Congress does not block the sale within 30 days, negotiations may begin.
The estimated cost of the four C-27J light tactical transports and other navigation communication gadgets is believed to be $680 million.
But in a heated argument this morning with Kwami Sefa Kayi, on Peacefm’s “KOKROKOO”, who was categorical in his denial that, “the President has not ordered any jet fighters or planes from the US,” however, added that “I’m unaware of us as a country ordering planes.”
“You’re speaking to the Spokesperson of the President, you’re in the Republic of Ghana,... you go and then pick up information from a website. For God’s sake, everybody can construct a website within a matter of minutes. If I have $1000, I can contract somebody to set up a website for me… so if you see anything on a website, I mean first of all, you’ve to question the credibility of the website,” he charged.
The verbal tirade against the media in general, and journalists in particular, by the usually soft-spoken former legislator, continued abated when he hit hard at them for not conducting proper checks before making the information public.
“The procedure is so basic that I thought whichever journalist put it out there should have known or should have done a little more background checks before putting out this information,” he exploded.
