BOB GELDOF - GELDOF CRITICISED BY AFRICAN CHIEF

GELDOF CRITICISED BY AFRICAN CHIEF

Campaigning rocker BOB GELDOF has been criticised by an African chief for "failing to honour his promise" to help develop a town in Ghana. Geldof visited Ajumako-Bisease in 2004 as part of TV series GELDOF ON AFRICA, with locals making the star the town's honorary chief of development. NANA OKOFO KWAKORA GYAN III has expressed his disappointment the star has not returned to the town to provide help and support for the area in a new documentary, A LETTER TO GELDOF - and insists he has been unable to contact Geldof over the issue. But a spokesman for Geldof denies the former BOOMTOWN RATS singer pledged to develop the town, branding the situation "a misunderstanding". He says, "Without forewarning when he arrived (in Bisease) there was this massive ceremony which he didn't expect. They made him an honorary chief. Of course he was going to accept that hospitality, it would have been rude not to. "The only thing he did promise was that he would return at some point for an autumn festival, which he hasn't done yet, but he will. The notion he could in any way develop Bisease is ridiculous. He wouldn't promise something that he could not do, could not deliver. "I think a misunderstanding is a reasonable way to put it. He certainly does not wish to criticise them, and it does not in any diminish his appreciation of the hospitality he was shown and for the people who live there."