Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the founder of think tank, Danquah Institute and a close associate of the president has intimated that it is no wrong to have affiliations with influential persons and insisted “it is how ethically” those “connections” are used that matters.
Gabby, as he is affectionately called, expressed the view on his Face book following what he described as “relentless and calculated false propaganda against me, it is true that I am a lawyer with ‘connections’, I am not the only one, not the first, and certainly not the last, it is not immoral and I also dismiss some purported claims that I am “controlling government business!”.
According to him, “I decided that my law firm will not accept any ministry, department or agency of government as a retainer client, we choose not to do government business as a practice unless it is incidental to serving our clients.”
Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had constantly hit at the President for running “a family and friends government,” citing appointments of appointees he is related to and though Mr Otchere-Darko is not part of the government, there is high speculation he is influential in decision making.
However, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a former Deputy Minister of Communications, wrote “the brother and cousin of the president, who we are told has no role in his government, are seen here in a meeting with the President of Guyana on an official visit, I will not run “family and friends” government, he promised in 2016”.
Mr Otchere-Darko indicated that, “I do not involve in procurements! I am not a contractor! If you are looking for “family and friends” with a rich record of procuring government contracts then I am definitely not your man, I get paid as a lawyer (pure and simple) for serving my clients and pay my taxes on my earnings”. -myjoyonline.com
