<<Print>>

New Patriotic Party's General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, otherwise called Sir John, has dismissed an ultimatum for him to apologize to palm wine tappers for a comment he made. One Kwabena Owusu, who says he is the spokesperson for an association of palm wine tappers in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, accuses Sir John of denigrating palm wine tappers and their profession and wants him to apologise. National Democratic Congress General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah had allegedly teased Sir John and the rest of the NPP's newly elected executives that they were incapable of winning even a local council election, to which Sir John is reported to have retorted that while he was pursuing his law course, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah was in the village tapping palm wine. This, Kwabena Owusu maintains, is denigrating the vocation and amounts to looking down on palm wine tappers, for which Sir John must apologize within two weeks or members of his association would advise themselves. But according to Sir John, his comment was no denigrating any palm wine tappers, and beside it was directed specifically at one person - Asiedu Nketiah - and if he did not find it denigrating, he saw no reason why another person should take offence. In the meantime, he has doubts about the existence of Kwabena Owusu's palm wine tappers association in Kumasi because, according to him he has never heard of the existence of any such association throughout his long stay in the region.