Akufo-Addo also noted that he never told Tinubu to seek treatment for his health, as contained in the purported letter making the rounds on social media.

Advising people via his verified Twitter handle to disregard the fake report, the Ghanaian President wrote, “My attention has been drawn to a disturbing post making the rounds on social media, where it is alleged I have written to the 2023 presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to give Peter Obi a chance and seek treatment for his health.

This is completely false and mischievous, with no iota of truth whatsoever in it.

“I have written no such letter to the APC leader, and it will not occur to me to do so. Ghana and Nigeria boast of decades of cordial, strong, and brotherly relations, and I am not going to be the one to interfere in the internal affairs and politics of Nigeria.”

Akufo-Addo was elected as the new ECOWAS Chair at the ongoing 57th Summit in Niamey, Republic of Niger.

This follows the charged by the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari during the summit warning African leaders against the unnecessary elongation of tenure in office.

According to him,  the elongation is one of source of trouble for the region.

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Presidents Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast, Macky Sall of Senegal, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger and Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana are some of the leaders who arrived in Bamako on Thursday.

InsideOjodu had earlier reported that the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Wednesday said President  Muhammadu Buhari, would be flying out of Abuja for Bamako, Mali, on Thursday on a peacekeeping mission.

According to Adesina; “President Muhammadu Buhari will Thursday depart for Bamako, Republic of Mali on a one-day visit, following the briefing by the ECOWAS Special Envoy to the country, former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The Nigerian President and some ECOWAS leaders led by the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the sub-regional organisation, President Issoufou Mahamadou of Niger Republic, agreed to meet in Mali to engage in further consultations towards finding a political solution to the crisis in the country.”

President Akufo-Addo announced that the government will cover the water bills of its citizens for the months of April, May and June.

Some communities in the country had complained they lacked water to effectively wash their hands as a preventive measure to stop the spread of the novel Coronavirus.

He said “The Ghana Water Company Ltd and the Electricity Company of Ghana have been directed to ensure the stable supply of water and electricity during this period. In addition, there will be no disconnection of supply. Furthermore, government will absorb the water bills for all Ghanaians for the next three months that is April, May and June. All water tankers, publicly and privately-owned, are also going to be mobilised to ensure the supply of water to all vulnerable communities.”

The President also announced that all frontline health workers treating Coronavirus patients would receive a 50 percent additional salary allowance and would not be taxed on their salaries for the next 3 months.

Ghana currently has 287 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 31 recoveries and 5 deaths.

Akufo-Addo said this while addressing the delegation of a commercial bank from Nigeria, noting that, “There’s a lot of room for continuing talks between Nigeria and Ghana in order for a breakthrough to be reached,” reports MyJoyonline.

In a separate report, Akufo-Addo was said to have lamented how the border closure would affect regional integration.

Daily Trust reports him as saying, “We are about to enter a delicate period in the ECOWAS journey looking ahead of the possibility of a single currency and trying to forge greater integration among our economies and at the same time have important security and other issues which confront us.

“We have this business of the closure of the Benin border, which seems to some people to be a big blow to the ECOWAS project.”

Nigeria had closed her land borders in August and it had affected the activities of businessmen in Nigeria and Ghana. Ghanaian traders had asked their government to retaliate, however, Ghanaian government officials have been interfacing with their Nigerian counterparts to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday said that Nigeria would only open its borders if her neighbours would agree to stop the smuggling of banned goods.

Source: Punch