Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
The Ministry of Information has stated that the video purportedly released by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) alleging that President Nana Akufo-Addo has collected bribe is fake.
The Information Ministry made this known in a press statement dated December 2, 2020.
The statement signed by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said Government has taken note of a “desperate attempt by the campaign of John Mahama to falsely accuse the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, of bribery.”
The statement said Government was not disappointed that Mr Mahama and the current NDC leadership will step so low with obvious fabrications which they hope can change the minds of Ghanaians, saying “it is and will always be their stock-in-trade.”
With about five more days to the December 7, 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections and all independent polls including those from the University of Ghana and the Kumasi Technical University, pointing to an NPP and Mr Akufo-Addo’s landslide win, the leading opposition party, is trying every means possible to project Mr Akufo-Addo as a corrupt leader, with the apparent hope of causing disaffection for the President among Ghanaian voters.
Forces aligned to the NDC including so-called social media commentator, Kevin Taylor, are busily churning out their last minute false information aimed at soiling the incorruptible reputation of Mr Akufo-Addo.
Agents of the NDC have for the past few days been working hard to establish that President Akufo-Addo do take bribe, with their action fueled by a baseless so-called epistle by former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, whose fight against corruption is highly questionable.
The latest following a plethora of previously published fake news about the President is a doctored video clip purporting to show President Akufo-Addo ‘taking bribe’ from a certain woman.
The name of the woman was not disclosed in the NDC manufactured video but it has emerged that no bribe payment meeting was held between the President and the said woman.
The doctored video is believed to have been produced for television broadcast and circulation on social media.
The video shows the lady visiting Mr Akufo-Addo in his office in Accra to “make a donation.”
In the said doctored video, the woman is seen handling over a brown envelope containing money.
A person who was purported to be secretly filming the video was heard saying the amount the woman handed over to the President was $40,000.
However, it has emerged that the original video dates back to 2016 when Mr Akufo-Addo was still an opposition leader.
In the run-up to the 2016 elections, Mr Akufo-Addo received a supporter of the then opposition NPP who wanted to support his campaign.
At the time, the said supporter was billed to make the donation through a senior member of the NPP Council of Elders, Ama Busia but that could not happen since Madam Busia was indisposed.
Thus, the benevolent NPP supporter named Hajia Fawzia, was accompanied by Ghana’s former Ambassador to Japan, Dr Barfuor Adjei Barwuah, to see Mr Akufo-Addo.
As revealed in the original video, Madam Fawzia donated some 1,000 NPP branded t-shirts and an amount of Ghc 40,000 not $40,000 as indicated in the doctored video.
It is not strange for supporters of political parties to donate towards their party’s campaigns.
Both the NDC and NPP have over the years relied on donations from their members and supporters to run their campaigns and that was the same thing Madam Fawzia did for her party and Mr Akufo-Addo In 2016 and not that she paid bribe to the party.
Interestingly, as the NDC agents are using a doctored tape to paint a dubious bribe-taking claim against the President, that same year (2016) when Madam Fawzia made the donation, then President John Mahama and flagbearer of the NDC for 2020, subtly admitted to taking bribe as a human and not as a President while speaking in an interview with BBC’s Peter Okwoche.
During that interview, Mr Okwoche asked then President Mahama, “Mr President have you been offered a bribe before?”
Mr Mahama responded “As a President?”
Mr Okwoche then proved further: “As John Mahama!”
Mr Mahama who appeared grossly guilty, asked again: “As a human being?’
But the BBC correspondent said “As a person,” asking “Did you take it? Mr President, did you take it.”
Mr Mahama went on to say during the interview that “Any human being in the world would have encountered corruption one way or the other, either being offered a bribe or a bribe being demanded from you.”
By Melvin Tarlue