Pius Enam Hadzide, the former Minister of Information was compelled to retract a statement he made against Ahmed Ibrahim, the Deputy Minority leader after the latter took exception to the said comments.
Pius Hadzide called into Okay FM’s morning show on January 13, 2023 to accuse Ahmed Ibrahim of spreading falsehood and making baseless allegations against the Ministry of Information, Pius previously served as deputy at the Ministry.
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority (NYA) expressed disappointment that Ahmed Ibrahim who is among the leadership of the Minority caucus in Parliament will engage in what he views to be trivialities.
According to him, Ahmed Ibrahim’s claim that government has a special budget for its communicators besides the Information Service Department (ISD) is untrue and not befitting of his role as deputy Minority Chief Whip.
“I’m disappointed in him (Ibrahim Ahmed). He’s among the leaders in the minority caucus in Parliament so for such a person when he speaks, you expect him to say the truth but if you use such a big platform to engage in trivialities then you are not being a good example to us, the youth.
“I worked at the Ministry of Information and he made certain statements that cover the period I was there. He claims we pay government communicators. He didn’t add any evidence. He just said it and went his way. It is not true. Ask him if he can give you a name,” he said.
The Member of Parliament for Banda Constituency posed a question back to Pius Hadzide if there was a budget item for government communicators or not.
“Ask Pius Enam Hadzide if prior to the arrival of the Akufo-Addo government, there was a budget item for government communicators. Beyond the budgets of the Ministry of Information and Communication and the ISD, ask him if in 2018 they didn’t budget GH GH₵6million purposely for government communication.
“It was captured in the budget. Every year they budget for government communication. The minority had issues with them because how come you can’t give that money to the ISD who are responsible for the dissemination of government policies? They created their own communication team. Ask him, if I’m lying? ” he quizzed.
Ahmed Banda explained that he used harsh words on Pius Hadzide because he first questioned his integrity.
“You tainted my integrity and I pointed it out to you. I should have respected him but he disrespected me. When he first came on, he shouldn’t have spoken to me like that. I’m not someone you can just talk to like that.
“I gave you factual figures from the budget. He was the deputy, he should disprove it. Unlike him, I don’t lie. If he had respected me, I would have respected him,” he said.
Pius Hadzide then responded: “I withdraw and retract my statement” before going ahead to make his point.
The banter lasted nearly twenty-five minutes.
