Campaign Coordinator of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has noted that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led administration has dealt with corruption to the barest minimum.
This, he believes, makes corruption no longer a big issue ahead of the upcoming election.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid pointed out recent surveys carried out by interest groups which indicated that most Ghanaians are less interested in corruption.
Joy News reported that the NPP campaign coordinator has expressed that President Akufo-Addo is fighting the menace.
“In all the surveys that have been done by all the reputable research institutions and democratic organisations in our country, including the CDD, the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana none of those surveys show that corruption is upper-most in the minds of the Ghanaian people.
“Now, we want to remind the Ghanaian people and Candidate John Dramani Mahama that the reason corruption was a central issue in 2016 and it is not in 2020 is because it is not a palpable path of the governance structure and system today,” he explained.
Dr Hamid who is also the Zongo and Inner City Development Minister also confirmed that government has commenced efforts to get the country’s share of the Airbus compensation repatriated to Ghana.
Deputy Minister for Information, Pius Enam Hadzide has stated that the supposed bribe video purporting to suggest that the then-candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took a bribe is baseless.
To him, the largest opposition party is only interested in propagating false news rather than outlining their policies to Ghanaians ahead of the December 7 polls.
“They don’t have any message now; their messenger and message are not credible and they know. The agenda now is to tarnish the image of the President with false allegations,” he said in an interview with NEAT FM’s morning show ‘Ghana Montie’.
“President Nana Addo will never take bribe and he has track records to back that. That is the difference between the President and John Mahama who is known for corruption,” he added.
A civil society advocate I respect very much sent me a video of the alleged Akufo-Addo bribe this morning, and said it wasn’t possible the encounter happened in 2016. After some back and forth, I was compelled to watch the video.
It was the one with a voice narration, but I raelised there was something else strange about this video. In this video, the one who led the Hajia to meet Nana Akufo-Addo is heard begging on behalf of one Alhaji Abass. I felt this was strange because in the first unedited video that I watched, that was not part of the conversation. The discussion about party people wanting Alhaji out did not feature at all. So I went to the Facebook pages of those who first shared the 15 minute unedited video without the voice over or narration.
I realised that they had pulled down the original videos and uploaded this new one which had the voice over and what appears like an insertion of the speaker’s voice to match the narration that the money was sent as a bribe in 2017 to ensure that Alhaji Abass was kept in office.
The issue about campaign T-shirts have also been edited out of this new one. You will also realise that in the first one, an amount of 40,000 was mentioned, but there was no denomination. But in the second video being circulated, there it is stated.
I searched YouTube and realised that someone still had the earlier one, and it confirms the information I heard on the original video shared before being pulled down. (Watch this video and compare it to the other one being shared now and you’ll spot the differences.)
The conversation in the new one flows more naturally. For instance, when Barffour Awuah heard about the T-Shirts, he interjected and said he was going to Kumasi the following day and that he had to send the T-Shirts to support the (NPP) candidate in Asawase who badly needed support in his campaign. Nana Akufo-Addo readily agreed that he should send them to him. We should be asking the originators of the video why they pulled down the original ones they shared on November 30.
And we should be concerned because someone can record you in a discussion on one topic and go and edit out the original words they spoke to you and add new ones to create a different scenario. I do investigative journalism and I sometimes employ undercover techniques. My opinion on this is purely professional. I don’t know of any journalist who has been more outspoken about the president’s handling of corruption than I have.
But if he’s treated unfairly, I am obliged to point it out.
In 2016, I was one of the few who openly defended President Mahama when his voice was doctored in Kumasi in the “hen and hawk dance analogy” by a journalist to create the impression he was insulting the Asante people. It is a matter of principle and from a professional standpoint. In any form of undercover, the offence you intend to link the target of your investigation with should be the subject of discussion in the undercover recording. If you record your pregnant girlfriend as having taken money from you to abort a pregnancy and the conversation in the video is about taking the money for shopping, we have to point it out to you. There can be problems with the shopping and we should discuss that separately, but you don’t accuse her of taking money to terminate the pregnancy when that never came up when you met to do the secret recording.
In this case, I agree with those who question the mode of funding political party campaigns. I agree that there should have been proper structures where the presidential candidate does not have to be directly involved. I agree with those who question the motive of the giver. I don’t have any problem when Akufo-Addo is scrutinised for how he handled this and other donations. But it’s wrong to doctor the conversation of a meeting in order to destroy another person. It can happen to anyone. And you don’t have to belong to Akufo-Addo’s party or be his supporter to point this out. Just note that there are two separate tapes on this matter.
Seasoned Journalist, Kweku Baako says he will no longer treat any person or entity that denigrates him with kid gloves.
He made this known while discussing the alleged ‘bribe’ video regarding President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
A video released by the Salis Media showed the President receiving a sum of Ghc 40000 from Ghana’s Ambassador to USA, Baffour Adjei Bawuah who presented it on behalf of the Director of Urban Roads, Alhaji Dr. Abass.
”It has been revealed that NANA AKUFO-ADDO is not the ANGEL Ghanaians perceived him to be but one, who is fully entangled in CORRUPTION and only fights corruption with words. Undercover investigations conducted by The Salis Newspaper has exposed sitting President Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) taking a bribe in a BROWN ENVELOPE in an undercover video. The money was handed over to Ambassador Baffour Adjei Bawuah…The US $40000 Dollar Bribe was paid to the President in 2017 after the NPP won the 2016 Elections at Nana Akufo-Addo’s private residence in Nima, Accra. The giver of the BRIBE is the current Director of URBAN ROADS, Alhaji Dr. Abass”, the Salis newspaper published.
Addressing the issue, Kweku Baako said the ‘bribe’ allegations are falsehood.
He revealed that the presentation was made in October, 2016 when President Akufo-Addo was a Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) seeking to unseat the Mahama administration.
The money, he noted, was given towards his (Akufo-Addo) victory campaign and that the Salis newspaper publication is untrue.
He charged Alhaji Abass to sue the owner of the newspaper and those peddling the false story.
Kweku Baako stressed that, as for him, should anybody make a disparaging remark about him; he will not hesitate to take legal action.
“You know that I don’t subscribe to going to the court and it’s something that still affects me that I will go to court because it’s against my whole orientation. But I’ve learned one good lesson out of the court processes that rumors, gossips, rumormongers and so forth; you dey look pathetic. Especially when they’re put in the dock and under cross-examination, they look like kids and so, maybe gradually, I will revise my philosophy,” he told Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo”.
President Akufo Addo says he will not relax the enforcement of the ban on illegal mining despite promises and criticisms by the largest opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC).
The opposition party led by its flagbearer ex-President John Mahama has promised among other things to grant pardon to jailed illegal miners and release their seized excavators to them.
Addressing a rally at Manso Nkwanta, a mining community in the Ashanti Region, President Akufo Addo said he’ll not bow to pressure to soften his stance on illegal miners.
“I can turn a blind eye to activities that are destroying our natural resources and water bodies. I don’t have the power to say mining cannot be done in Ghana and I’ve not even said so. Our forefathers were into mining but they did not destroy the land as is being done now. That is what I’ve said and we are bringing in measures to streamline mining in the mining sector. Community mining is the way to go and my government is working to ensuring that we get it done. Nobody in the mining sector will lose their job, don’t listen to anybody who says when he comes galamsey will be done anyhow and uncontrolled.”
President Akufo Addo announced the ban on illegal mining two years ago and further rolled out many measures to enforce the ban in a bid to reclaim degraded lands.
Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, has exposed the individual behind the tape recording of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo receiving a sum of money from Ghana’s Ambassador to USA, Baffour Adjei Bawuah.
The incident happened at the private residence of President Nana Akufo-Addo.
The Salis Newspaper published a story under the headline “Caught Pants Down! President Akufo-Addo Taking Bribe” reporting that the President was bribed by Mr. Adjei Bawuah who was acting on behalf of the Director of Urban Roads, Alhaji Abass.
”It has been revealed that NANA AKUFO-ADDO is not the ANGEL Ghanaians perceived him to be but one, who is fully entangled in CORRUPTION and only fights corruption with words. Undercover investigations conducted by The Salis Newspaper has exposed sitting President Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) taking a bribe in a BROWN ENVELOPE in an undercover video. The money was handed over to Ambassador Baffour Adjei Bawuah…The US $40000 Dollar Bribe was paid to the President in 2017 after the NPP won the 2016 Elections at Nana Akufo-Addo’s private residence in Nima, Accra. The giver of the BRIBE is the current Director of URBAN ROADS, Alhaji Dr. Abass”, the newspaper read.
The story has so far dominated political discussions with political opponents of the President using it against his campaign to be re-elected into office.
But Kweku Baako has shot down the story while discussing it on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” on Wednesday, December 2, 2020.
Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi, Kweku Baako asserted that the story is untrue.
He disclosed the person who recorded the President is called Salis Yakubu and is the owner of the Salis newspaper.
He noted that the story has been skewed to look like the money presentation was made recently, but actually it was done in 2016 prior to the general elections when President Nana Akufo-Addo was then a candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He stressed that the money which was given to the President was Ghc 40000 but not 40000 dollars as published in the Salis newspaper and added the cash was to assist the Akufo-Addo victory campaign in 2016.
Mr. Baako exposed the true character of Salis Yakubu
He noted that Salis secretly recorded the incident and gave a wrong account in the voice-over he made on the video so as to tarnish the image of President Akufo-Addo.
Kweku Baako further disclosed he knows Salis Yakubu very well and that he once introduced him to investigative Journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, but Anas sacked him after few months of working with him.
Mr. Baako also revealed that he is the same guy who lied about him during an undercover report by Anas Aremeyaw Anas titled ”Who watches the watchman” by saying he (Baako) had secretly recorded the President.
“Look, this is a guy that I influenced his entry into Tiger Eye,” he said but he regrets introducing him to Anas because any person who knows Salis’ true colors would never believe what he says or does, and particularly not believe the bribery allegation against the President because he lacks credibility.
“He is a political prostitute and a mercenary of the highest order. I regret myself. I led him to see Anas and became part of Tiger Eye, and in four/five months, Anas dismissed him. This is 2016 and then he set up his own group,” he stated.
Mr. Baako also revealed that Salis has been collecting videos to blackmail his victims, so advised the NPP not to pay attention to him.
“As I speak to you, I know he’s exited to Benin. I’m telling you. You know our borders are closed but they’re porous. You understand me. The borders are closed but they’re porous and so there are entry points that you can’t find an immigration person there and if you’re determined to exit, you’ll exit . . . He does these things and he sells them. He got into the NPP party; he got into it.
“This boy did the recording. Unfortunately for him, we have the original . . . So, when he decided to do the fake one in order to blackmail and collect money, and he collected monies from some people who didn’t know that the thing is fake . . . He lied and he’s still lying. He is in Benin. By now, he’s anticipating that I will come here and say something. He should stay there forever . . . Let me tell you that that tape by the boy is fake.”
”The sad part is that a fine public servant like Alhaji Abass, you bring him to the front burner relative to propaganda of nuisance value. It’s unfair to him. He doesn’t deserve that . . . ”
He called on Alhaji Abass to file a law suit against Salis Yakubu and his team.
“I would pray to God that this case should go to court. Look, the court doesn’t interrogate rumors, gossips and so forth. They have no room there and you’ll be so embarrased . . . I hope what I’ve heard is true that he’s getting his lawyers to take steps to deal with this matter.”
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has accused the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) of being the architects of fake news and videos against the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
A recent video making the rounds on social media which some political pundits have described as fake, indicates that President Akufo-Addo reportedly took an amount of $40,000 as a bribe.
A second video also being circulated on social media however shows something different.
According to the Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kweku Baako, that is the original and true reflection of what actually happened in 2016.
Prior to this, there have been other fake news and videos all against the NPP and according to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayiribi, were all orchestrated by the NDC.
Speaking in a one-on-one interview on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, he mentioned some names of NDC bigwigs who are allegedly behind such acts.
Ambassador Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Haruna Attah, former High Commissioner of Ghana to Namibia and Botswana has said the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama is a better candidate than Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo ahead of the elections on Monday December 7.
He indicated that he has worked with the two personalities in different areas of their lives therefore, he is best placed to assess the two candidates.
Earlier in the middle of this year, he published a book on Mahama with the unabashed title of admiration: “Awhene Pa Nkasa. Standing with JDM”.
Ambassador Haruna Attah said these on the KSM show when the host programme, Kweku Sintim Misa asked him to predict the out come of the polls.
He “corrected” his host with the following words: “I’d rather rephrase the question: Who would you vote for?
“Of course I will vote for John Mahama”.
Explaining further, he said, “I believe he is a better candidate. I know the two main candidates [on the ballot] and in fairness to my conscience I think he is a better candidate.”
He called on “fair-minded” Ghanaians to recognize the former president’s good works and join him in voting JM.
Barely a week to the December 2020 polls, the Asunafo North Municipal Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) in the Ahafo region, Martha Osei Agyemang has died creating a vacuum.
The 36-year-old who died at the Wenchi Methodist Hospital where she was on admission receiving treatment according to sources available to MyNewsgh left behind a child
Reports suggest Madam Martha complained she was unwell due to stress at her workplace in view of the workload at her office following the impending polls.
She, however, decided to see her personal doctor at Wenchi in Bono Region for which she left Goaso on Wednesday.
It was gathered that she was getting well and had planned her return to work until news broke out this weekend if her demise.
According to Ahafo Regional Director of the Electoral Commission John Appiah Baffoe who confirmed her death on a local radio station, Madam Martha was committed to her duty.
The body of the deceased has been conveyed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.
The debate about who introduces the free senior high school policy seems unending.
Leader and flagbearer of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) Mr. Percival Kofi Akpalo has joined free SHS debate.
Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia program, he minced no words declaring the policy was introduced and well executed by the President now flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo.
He therefore wonders how and “why anybody in his or her right frame of mind claim ownership” of the policy.
“The Devil himself, who is the father of all lies even knows that Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo through his NPP government introduced the free SHS policy,” he stated.
He maintained that his government will continue the policy when they are elected into power by Ghanaians which they know is possible.
“Ghanaians will certainly vote for the LPG because they know that just like the NPP government, we have more policies than any other party.
“My party was even the first to touch on the one district one factory policy being implemented by the NPP government.
“As a party, we have more pro-poor policies than any other party so voting for the LPG is just like voting for a party that will alleviate you from the hardship of this country.
“We are going to make this country like America and Europe where everyone benefits from the national cake,” he added.
Former Special Prosecutor Martin A.B.K Amidu has described the Agyapa Royalties deal as the mother of all corruption since Ghana gained independence in 1957.
This is captured in his latest epistle in response to the presidency’s comment after accepting his (Amidu’s) resignation weeks back.
Mr Amidu resigned from his position as Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor on November 16, 2020.
In his resignation letter, he cited amongst other things political interference from the president as a reason for his decision. He accused the President of interfering in his work with regards to the Agyapa deal and wanted him to ‘shelve’ the report.
In accepting Mr. Amidu’s resignation, President Akufo-Addo denied ever interfering in his work and rather said he gave him all the assistance and independence to operate.
But in a 27-page response to the Presidency, the citizen vigilante said; “I have underscored the deliberate distortions and manipulations of facts contained in the opening paragraphs of your letter written to me on the directives and instructions of the President to demonstrate that your letter to me from its inception was intended to be the personification of falsehoods to the good people of Ghana and to divert public attention from a very important and serious anti-corruption assessment in respect of the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transaction documents report which I conducted professionally as the first Special Prosecutor of Ghana.”
“The Agyapa Royalties Limited Transaction contains the mother of all suspended corruption and corruption-related offences to be discovered in the first analysis of the risk of the prevention of corruption and anti-corruption assessment since Ghana attained its independence in 1957,” Amidu stated.
To him, the President Akufo-Addo can best pass for the kingpin of corruption, and indicted the latter for taking the presidential “oath while looking like the innocent flower of anti-corruption but being the mother serpent of corruption under it.”
“I resigned my position as the Special Prosecutor because of the traumatic experience I suffered from the reaction of the President who breached his Presidential oath by unlawfully obstructing me from taking any further steps on the Agyapa Royalties Transactions from 20th October 2020 to 1 November 2020.”
“When I met the President on 23rd October 2020, I received the shock of my life when he demanded that I took no further action on the Agyapa royalties transaction anti-corruption assessment report for another week. That was when it was divinely revealed to me that the President whom I trusted so much for integrity only looked like the innocent flower of anti-corruption but he was really the mother corruption serpent under the innocent-looking flower,” he added.
Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt has backed claims that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government did not originate and roll-out the free Senior High School (SHS) programme.
Former President and NDC Presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama claims his government started the free SHS policy but they couldn’t implement itfully because Ghanaians voted them out of power in 2016.
“We started the programme and the NPP came and continued it. Unfortunately the implementation has been very poor, and so it ended us in double track. I assure you my country men, that within one year, I will cancel the double track.
“All the Community Day Schools we were building, 200 of them, we are going to finish them so that all the children can get schools to attend.
“With the Community Day Schools we are building, we are going to add dormitory blocks for girls and boys so that those who don’t come from the community where the school is sited, if they choose that school and they are posted there, they will be able to get a decent place to live and learn,” Mr Mahama said during his tour of the Upper East Region.
But to some political critics, particularly NPP faithfuls, Mr. Mahama is peddling falsehood in his desperate attempts to win the 2020 elections. Some even took to mocking the former president for what they considered to be absurd claims since they believed President Nana Akufo-Addo is the sole initiator of the free SHS programme.
However, Kwesi Pratt thinks otherwise. Referencing the manifestoes of some political parties in the country to back his assertions, the Senior Journalist was emphatic that the free SHS was the most important item on the list of promises by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) prior to the 2012 and 2016 elections; thus the Akufo-Addo government cannot claim sole ownership either.
”Their most important policy was free SHS. In fact, PPP is the first political party that showed us how to fund the policy and also had a budget for it.”
To him, President Akufo-Addo rather rolled out progressive free education and not free SHS.
”They started with first years before moving to second year and third year. That is progressive…When the NPP came into power, they did a progressive free education”
He added that the oppostion NDC never condemned the free SHS but rather the argument was about how to implement it.
”The argument wasn’t whether it’s good or not but about how to implement it. The NPP said they will implement it instantly and that they don’t want it to be progressive. Our brothers in the NDC also said they will make it progressive”, he said on Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo”.
Embattled Anti-corruption Crusader, Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu, says but for “divine revelation,” he would still be under the erroneous impression that the President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo was a man of integrity.
According to him, just like the scales felled off the eyes of the Biblical Saul following a hands-on prayer encounter with Ananias, the “Holy Trinity” gave him a divine vision about the real “mother corruption serpent under the innocent-looking flower of anti-corruption” that the president is.
Mr Amidu who was appointed by the president to help fight corruption and was tasked to probe the controversial Agyapa Royalties Transaction Agreement is now in a sparring contest of words with his former employer.
He resigned from his position as Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor on November 16, 2020.
In his anti-corruption assessment report on the Agyapa deal, he indicted the Transaction Advisor(s) involved in the deal for being susceptible to “nepotism, cronyism, and favoritism”.
Even though the president has strongly denied the allegations, Amidu insisted that God revealed to him the facts about the deal.
President Akufo Addo in a letter accepting Mr. Amidu’s resignation denied ever interfering in his work and rather said he gave him all the assistance and independence to operate.
But Amidu has disputed those claims after describing the president as a “mother serpent of corruption”.
In a 27-page response to the presidency’s comment after accepting his resignation weeks back, Amidu without ‘fear and favor’ has concluded that the first gentleman of the land is living a double life at the blind side of most Ghanaians.
“That God (represented by the Holy Trinity in my Catholic faith) was in his own divine way revealing to me for the first time the President of Ghana only looked like the innocent flower of the fight against corruption but was indeed the mother serpent of corruption under the innocent-looking flower of anti-corruption,” he noted in his latest epistle.
And in a thanksgiving prayer, he added; “May God, encompassed in the blessed Holy trinity be eternally praised for that divine revelation.”
Presidential candidate of the Ghana Freedom Party, Madam Akua Donkor says she will abolish English Language when elected as President of Ghana.
According to her, one of her topmost promises to Ghanaians is to ban the citizenry from speaking English stressing the making of English an official language of the country contributes to the woes of Ghanaians..
Akua Donkor said this during an interview with host Abeiku Santana on Okay FM’s drive time.
She added that she will sack every person in Parliament to make way for new people, new laws.
”I will abolish English Language in Ghana. When elected, I will ban Ghana from speaking English. God, in his infinite wisdom, knows why He created us. We don’t rule a nation with English but with wisdom and power”, she said.
