Sydney Casely-Hayford, Financial analyst and social commentator, has said that the Nana Akufo-Addo government is not being truthful with Ghanaians regarding former President John Mahama's request to keep his official bungalow as his retirement home.
Mahama recently wrote a letter to President Akufo-Addo, withdrawing his request to keep the bungalow.
It followed severe criticism of Mahama after the deal became public.
Although the former president has said that Akufo-Addo approved his request to keep the bungalow, government officials have denied that that was the case.
Commenting on the development on Accra-based Citi FM on Saturday, Casely-Hayford said the government had lied to Ghanaians.
He said some agreement must have been cut between Mahama and Akufo-Addo on the house, adding that he did not think that the former president would write a letter referring to an agreement between him and the incoming president if it was false.
“My point is that there is some connivance and there is a point where we are not being given the whole truth of the matter. This is from the government side. I think in this particular instance they are withholding truth because of repercussions. It just doesn’t make any logical sense that president Mahama will sit down and forge an agreement and refer to an agreement that never existed and say I am withdrawing my request,†he said.
He added that public outcry against the deal may have compelled the government to back out quietly.
“All I can say is after the story broke out and they felt the backlash particularly on social media and how people were thinking about this whole issue they decided to do a U-turn, they had to figure out a way of covering in up.â€