Bernard Allotey Jacobs
It has emerged that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) plotted and planted a story that then sitting President John Agyekum Kufuor collected $5 million as bribe.
They did it just to tarnish his image and get the public to vote against the President’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2008 general election which the current President, Nana Akufo-Addo was contesting for the first time.
The NDC’s continuous lies and propaganda against the NPP brought the late Professor John Evans Atta Mills to power in early 2009 after winning the 2008 presidential election, following an unprecedented third round of contest.
Even in that election, candidate Akufo-Addo managed to beat Prof. Mills in the first round, but when the NDC stepped up its propaganda, the NPP succumbed to pressure and lost by less than 40,000 votes.
At that time, it was the current Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, who was then Minority Leader, then former President Rawlings’ spokesperson Victor Smith and Allotey Jacobs who was the NDC’s Central Regional Propaganda Secretary, who later became the party’s Regional Chairman, spearheaded the bribe story and even insisted they had evidence to prove the allegation.
Now one of the key people who spearheaded the vile propaganda has come out to say that the NDC concocted the corruption-related story against Mr. Kufuor to create public disaffection for him and the NPP.
One of the actors, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, whom the NDC said they have expelled from their ranks, spilled the beans on Peace FM saying that they pushed the fake $5 million bribe story to gain political advantage.
He said, “We were only yearning to come to power so we were just blackmailing,” and even said he has since confessed to the Pope and asked for God’s forgiveness.
“I went for confession in Rome and informed the Pope that this is what I have done so he should pardon me and seek long life for me, that is why I am here today,” he added.
He said that, “I know what I am saying will attract insults for me on social media. I have said that what goes around comes around. When it got to their turn, they are calling it anti-party conduct and so on.
“One guy I was on radio with this morning said I was speaking for the current government that was why I was disciplined and I said to him that if somebody is doing something good, we all have to support that person or group. Anyone who is charting a good course must be encouraged to succeed.”
He added that, “I can see this government doing well, especially the President and his Vice. I will support them because I want Ghana to move forward. We don’t have to always go one step forward, two steps backward.”
He also said that “what they are using to vilify us today are the same things they did the other time to get to power.”
Kufuor’s ‘Twins’
Apart from the fake bribe story, the NDC was unrelenting in their attempts to damage the reputation of President Kufuor.
It would be recalled that during his tenure as President, Mr. Kufuor was a victim of an NDC machination when the then opposition party claimed he had twins with an Iraqi woman called Gizelle Yazi.
An orchestrated media campaign was triggered and this was fueled by an NDC sponsored ‘Friends Of Truth’ led by the late Alhaji Iddrisu Bature, which churned out continuous tales about the so-called twins.
The climax of the arrival of Gizelle Yazi with the so-called twins at the Kotoka International Airport did not happen, leaving Ghanaians to wonder what the NDC was seeking to achieve.
Supporters of the then President Kufuor also put up a fight using a group, ‘Enemies Of Lies.’
The political drama eventually evaporated into thin air, the former President had no twins and the engagement of a woman to claim to be mothering the twins of the Number One Gentleman was all but a fiction from the NDC propaganda machine.
President Kufuor, with no shortage of humour, even remarked at a point “I am still yet to see my twins!”
Collision Course
The NDC has been on collision course with all members who do not agree with some of the decisions and the direction the opposition party is taking to recapture power after they were booted out of office in the December 2016 general election.
They started with Allotey Jacobs and later vented their spleen on Samuel Koku Anyidoho, their former Deputy General Secretary, who both dared to publicly point out some of the faults in the NDC.
Zooming In On ET
They appear to be zooming in on veteran politician, Enock Teye Mensah, popularly called ET Mensah, now with the Council of State, who tried to parry the NDC propaganda in the scandal that has engulfed Saglemi Housing project.
ET Mensah’s ‘sin’ is that he had dared to correct the misinformation and propaganda that the NDC was spreading concerning the $200 million Saglemi Housing scandal for which five people including two ministers who served under the Mahama-led NDC administration have been arraigned before the court for willfully causing financial loss to the state among other charges.
It was during his time as the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) in the administration of the late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills that the Saglemi Housing project was initiated, and when the NDC tried to give a narrow scope of the project and also created the impression that it was Mr. Mahama’s initiative, ET Mensah sought to set the records straight.
In the ensuing melee, one of the party’s youth filed a petition against ET Mensah who was once the NDC MP for Ningo Prampram where the Saglemi Housing project is located, saying he (ET) “extremely misconducted himself as a leading member of the party and therefore must suffer the consequences thereof.”
Koku Troubles
Late last month, the NDC said they have with immediate effect, expelled Koku Anyidoho, who now heads the Atta Mills Institute, from the party after they said they found him culpable for gross misconduct and anti-party behaviour.
They then asked Koku Anyidoho, who has served the NDC in different capacities in the past, to return all party property in his custody without delay.
The expulsion was executed by the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the NDC, after it considered a report and recommendations of the National Disciplinary Committee.
Allotey Expulsion
In the case of Allotey, he was expelled in March after announcing two weeks earlier that he “sacked” himself from the opposition party.
Allotey’s statement signed by NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, had said “at our meeting on Wednesday, March 17, the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the NDC considered the report and recommendations of the disciplinary committee on the case of misconduct and anti-party behaviour brought against you, Mr. Allottey Jacobs, pursuant to Article 48(1) (b) of the NDC Constitution.”
Allotey Jacobs at the time described the NDC intentions as ‘evil’ and said he will continue to preach the good works that President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Bawumia are doing for the country.
By Ernest Kofi Adu