President John Mahama paid Steve Malory, Editor of Africawatch magazine, $2.5million to publish the recent ‘cancer story’ about Nana Akufo-Addo, flag bearer of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, the party’s Director of Elections, has alleged.
In its August edition, the magazine published detailed revelations about Mr Akufo-Addo’s alleged medical records in which it said the three-time flag bearer of Ghana’s biggest political party has been diagnosed with “prostate cancer, acute kidney injury, and an enlarged heart”.
Mr Korsah told Chief Jerry Forson on Accra100.5FM’s breakfast show Ghana Yensom on Tuesday, 30 August that Mr Mahama hired Mr Malory and paid him the amount to carry out the hatchet job against his arch political opponent ahead of the 7 December polls.
He said as a result of the payment made by Mr Mahama to Mr Malory, Africawatch magazine has always published positive stories about the President.
To buttress his allegation, Mr Korsah said the fact that some presidential staffers always had foreknowledge of intended publications by Africawatch before they see the light of day was proof enough that Mr Malory had received money from the president to whitewash him while hurling mud at his opponents.
Responding to the allegation on the same programme, Deputy Minister of Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu told Chief Jerry Forson that there was no iota of truth in the claim that Mr Mahama had used $2.5million of Ghanaian taxpayers’ money to pay Mr Malory to execute a hatchet job for him.
According to him, instead of the NPP confronting Africawatch magazine and the hospital that was named in the publication about the revelation, the elephant party is rather accusing President Mahama and the NDC of being behind the publication.
Mr Ofosu said: “It is a bogus allegation, it doesn’t require our time. It is a pure lie, especially because he [Mr Korsah] has not adduced any evidence to prove his claim.” In his view, the behaviour of the NPP was rather giving credence to the publication.
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