The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused President John Dramani Mahama of attempting to bribe the Northern Regional Chairman of the party, Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu, with money, cars and contracts, so that he (Nabu) could destroy the image of the NPP flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as an ethnic bigot who hates northerners with a passion.
That alleged machination, the party alleged, was to create the perception among northerners that Nana Akufo-Addo was a rabid hater of northerners.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra yesterday, a Spokesman for Nana Akufo-Addo, Sheikh Mustapha Hamid, alleged that the President met Mr Bugri Naabu on October 28, 2016, together with the President’s brother, Mr Ibrahim Mahama, and a certain Alhaji Mohammed Awal, at which meeting he (Bugri Naabu) was given GH¢500,000 in GH¢50 denominations.
Promises
Sheikh Hamid said Mr Bugri Naabu was also promised a brand new V6 Mitsubishi Pajero, a brand new V8 Landcruiser, GH¢3.3 million, as well as the payment of the GH¢247,000 debt owed him for years from a road construction work.
“Ibrahim Mahama dropped it, right in front of him,” Sheikh Hamid alleged.
He said the meeting day being a Friday, Mr Bugri Naabu, a vociferous critic of the Mahama administration, deposited the money in a Prudential Bank account at Abossey Okai in Accra.
A few days later, President Mahama sent a high-powered delegation to the funeral of Mr Bugri Naabu’s daughter.
At the funeral, a GH¢10,000 donation was allegedly made on behalf of the President, while Ibrahim Mahama gave GH¢20,000.
Days later, the Mitsubishi vehicle was allegedly delivered to Mr Bugri Naabu, with November 2, 2016 being the date on which the change of ownership was done.
“It was imported in August 2016 in the name of Malin Investment Company Limited and the party’s checks at the Registrar-General showed that the two directors of the company are Hawa Mahama and Frank Nuhu Alormasor, who everyone knows to be the special assistant to the President,” he said.
To lend credence to the allegations, Sheikh Hamid, who was flanked by the National Campaign Coordinator of the NPP, Mr Peter MacManu; the acting General Secretary of the party, Mr John Boadu, and members of the party’s communications team, provided what he alleged was a document covering the white Mitsubishi Pajero, with registration number GS-687-16, parked at the party’s headquarters.
Bugri Naabu absent
Bugri Naabu was, however, not at the media briefing and the Daily Graphic’s attempts to reach him on his mobile phone were not successful.
Details
Going into the story, Sheikh Hamid said several attempts had been made by the President, through his brother, to meet Mr Bugri Naabu since the latter became the Northern Regional Chairman of the NPP but they were not successful until October 28, this year.
The President, Ibrahim Mahama and Alhaji Awal are said to have driven to Mr Bugri Naabu’s office where Mr Awal entered and met the regional chairman and two other people — a certain Mr Majid Bawa and Mr John Kweku Alhassan, who contested the NPP Yunyoo parliamentary primary.
Although the President was said to be in the car, there was no conversation and Mr Bugri Nabu could not see him, as the car was partitioned.
They drove to Ibrahim’s Airport Residential Area home, where the said meeting took place from a little after 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
During the meeting, Ibrahim is alleged to have said he had been talking to Mr Bugri Naabu for some time now but Mr Bugri Naabu had been playing hard but had now agreed to meet the President and was ready to strike a deal with them.
Sheikh Hamid said the President allegedly thanked Mr Bugri Naabu and said “he was a northerner like Mr Bugri Naabu and had not been happy about the things Bugri Nabu had been saying about him. He also mentioned Dr Bawumia as another northerner who had been very harsh on him”.
He also quoted Mr Bugri Naabu as recalling the President as saying: “As the only northern President we have, it was through him that Dr Bawumia got to work at the central bank. The President also said nothing pained him more than Hajia Samira Bawumia, the wife of Dr Bawumia, who had also been very harsh on him.”
Dr Bawumia became the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana in 2006 when the NPP was in power and Mr Mahama was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bole Bamboi for the then opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“The President went on to say that Nana Akufo-Addo did not like northerners but Mr Bugri Naabu told him that it could not be true. But the President insisted that it was the reason Paul Afoko was suspended from the party.
“But Mr Bugri Naabu insisted that Mr Afoko brought his suspension upon himself through his behaviour for the party to suspend him and not Nana Akufo-Addo,” he said.
The deal
Sheikh Hamid said the alleged deal was for Mr Bugri Naabu to resign from the party and “damage the image of Nana Akufo-Addo beyond ‘electability’”.
“According to the President, Bugri Nabu should paint Nana Akufo-Addo as a rabid anti northern person who could never be trusted to advance the interest of the people of the north.
“He should tell the world that it was Nana Akufo-Addo who got him to turn against Mr Afoko and that he was now wiser. He was supposed to say Nana Akufo-Addo was running a one-man show in the NPP and label him as a dictator. If Akufo-Addo does not like you, you are in trouble. He was also supposed to say that it was Akufo-Addo who got him to suspend the Northern Regional Women’s Organiser of the NPP,” he said.
“Since the NPP elected its regional executives in January 2014, followed by the election of national officers in April 2014, President Mahama and his people have not relented in their evil ways and means to use money to get some of our own people to work against the NPP.
“Luckily for us, with all their cash, cars and lies, they have failed. I want to send a caution to any member or executive taking money from the NDC to work against the NPP: please do not do it. If you do so, you are working against yourself, your party and country,” he added.
Sheikh Hamid accused the President of being involved in vote-buying and tribal bigotry to win the elections but said it would not work, as the wind of change was already blowing across the country.
NDC responds
However, the Campaign Coordinator of the NDC, Mr Kofi Adams, has denied the allegations as fake.
He said the allegations were all lies and part of the NPP’s campaign programme to make Nana Akufo-Addo win votes by throwing stories that made the President look bad around.
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