John Mahama
THE Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, has said the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), former President John Dramani Mahama, abandoned his campaign in the region as a result of a smaller than expected crowd that welcomed him on his tour.
Mr. Mahama announced on Tuesday that he was cutting short his four-day tour of the Bono Region to return to Accra and deal with “increasing reports of challenges with the voter register and the exhibition process” in order to “address a major press conference on the issues in due course.”
His running mate, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, also announced suspension of campaign in the Central Region in solidarity.
But the Bono Regional NPP Chairman, who is popularly known as Abronye DC, claimed the real intention for calling off the Mahama campaign was lack of crowd to spurn the NDC leader on and was only using the EC issue as a cover up for his failing campaign.
Abronye DC said in a statement that the crowd was not encouraging when the former President came to the region to embark on the campaign, pointing out that plans for Mr. Mahama to address an “overflow” area of NDC supporters were abandoned after the party executives of the area failed to bus people to the venue.
“I have sighted an official communication from the office of the former President cutting short his campaign at the Bono Region. According to Mr. Mahama, this has been necessitated by several complaints with regard to abnormalities in the ongoing voter exhibition exercise.
“It must be noted empathically that the main reason for cutting short his tour in the region is that yesterday after visiting Sunyani Odumasi around 1:00 a.m., John Mahama was not encouraged about the turnout and for that matter, in a meeting held at Esubett with a section of his regional executives, told them that in order to avoid any disgrace, he has to return to Accra and come back later after a better mobilization has been done,” he said.
According to Abronye DC, ex-President Mahama was “very furious with his regional executives after they failed to make proper preparations by busing people from Bono East which is their stronghold to the Bono Region.”
Abronye DC said that the NDC leader, in 2016, insinuated that the people of Bono Region were “senseless” after the collapse of DKM Diamond Limited by asserting that “even his illiterate uncle will not engage in such a Ponzi scheme.”
“The good people of Bono Region have not forgotten about these insults because they do not have short memories, as John Mahama thinks; they refused to step out to welcome him when he visited the region,” he pointed out.
He noted that the NDC flagbearer saw with his eyes the good works done by President Akufo-Addo in the area of roads and other infrastructural projects.
For him, ex-President Mahama is only using the exhibition of the voters’ register as an excuse, pointing out that this is not the first time such anomalies have happened.
By Ernest Kofi Adu