Palaver Editor, Spanish Envoy Damn Gizelle

* She is incredibly inconsistent - Jojo Bruce Quansah * We don't know her - Spanish Ambassador

MS GIZELLE YAJZI, the woman whose testimony has been trumpeted by critics to call for the impeachment of President John Agyekum Kufuor, is incredibly inconsistent in her claims, says Jojo Bruce Quansah, Editor of the pro-NDC Ghana Palaver newspaper, which first broke the story.

“There is so much inconsistency in her statements”, Mr Quansah said in his concluding assessment of the woman, whom he said once threatened to sue him over reports carried by the Palaver.

He also made it clear that he would not vouch for the credibility of the American woman, known to be of Arabic origin.

The Editor of the newspaper famous for its stern opposition to the Kufuor administration says he is, however, not interested in putting out the information on the inconsistencies in Ms Gizelle's statements because it is not his duty as a journalist to do so.

In his view, that is the job of public relations officers. “I am not the public relations officer of government”, Mr Quansah said in a terse response to a question on his assertion on Citi FM's Friday morning programme “Inside Politics” last week.

He was on the programme with Mr Kweku Baako Jnr, Editor in Chief of The Crusading Guide and Alhaji A. B. A. Fuseini, Foreign News Editor of the Daily Graphic, who contributed to the programme via phone.

In a related case, the Spanish Ambassador to Ghana Jose Montealegro, also told Citi FM that claims reportedly made by Ms Yajzi to the family of the original hotel owner, Mr Anthony Saoud, that she wanted to buy the hotel for a Spanish NGO were false.

The Ambassador said the Embassy “had contacted the main Spanish NGO's that work in Ghana and they have all confirmed that, at no moment did they ever think of buying that hotel and they did not contact any agent, be it a lady or gentleman of whatever nationality to do so.”

That disclaimer by the Spanish Envoy further turned the tables on Ms Yajzi, who claimed in a Joy FM interview last week that she had represented some Spanish interests and saved Ghana money during her brief tenure as Advisor to former Finance Minister Yaw Osaafo Marfo on two contracts (she was not Advisor to President Kufuor as reported by JOY FM and other media houses).

Though Ms. Yajzi also suggested that she has no evidence that will directly link the President to the acquisition of the $3.5 million property nicknamed “Hotel Kufuor” in her JOY FM interview, she insisted that the owner was the President and not his son, Chief John Addo Kufuor.

According to her, Ghanaian journalists should follow her leads and establish that President Kufuor owned the property.

The only proof she offered was that the President discussed the purchase of the hotel with her in September 2001; three years before the property's purchase was finally sealed in 2004. Again she claimed that the President asked her to negotiate a deal on the property for him; an allegation that the Presidency, has vehemently denied in a statement issued by Chief of Staff, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani.

Continuing his analysis of Ms Gizelle's statement, Mr Jojo Bruce Quansah, also noted that though Ms Yajzi appears ready “to do President Kufuor in”, she was ready to protect her twins.

“Which twins?” asked Paul Adom Otchere, host of the programme.

In response, Mr Quansah hesitated and acknowledged that neither him, nor anybody has seen even pictures of the alleged twins, let alone be convinced of their existence.

Interestingly, Ms Yajzi, who sparked speculation on an alleged affair with the President on JOY FM last Tuesday, hit the streets of Accra via a Radio Gold interview the following Wednesday morning, claiming that Ghanaian journalists got her wrong on allegations that her “intimate” affair with President Kufuor was sexual.

She insisted that President Kufuor was not her lover and that she had not slept with him as reported in sections of the media following her carefully crafted interview on JOY FM..

“If I say I had intimate relationship with him, it doesn't mean I slept with him”, she told her stunned listeners just a day after she was interviewed on JOY FM.

She dismissed the suggestion that the intimate relationship she claimed she had with the President was an amorous one.