The National Organiser for New Patriotic Party(NPP), Sammy Awuku has debunked allegations that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took bribe from a woman in a video circulating on social media.
According to him, the said woman, who is a business woman decided to support Akufo-Addo personally with GHC40,000 and not 40,000 Dollars as speculated by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking to Nana Owusu Nkrumah on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie, Sammy Awuku said the woman presented the money to President Akufo-Addo in October 2016 when he was not yet a president.
The money and the T- Shirts, he said was to support President Akufo-Addo as an individual, the then Presidential Candidate of the NPP.
Sammy Awuku said because the NDC is corrupt and has been exposed, it is trying to tag the NPP as corrupt so that they can be on the same level with the NPP, saying that the NDC’s plan will not hold.
“The woman said she was supporting Akufo-Addo with GHC40,000. Some people do not even do politics but like to help individuals and so if she decided to support his campaign with money, does it make it bribery? The NDC wants to tag us as corrupt like them but it will not hold. They went for Ford Expedition as bribe,” he said.
Sammy Awuku also explained that although some people support the party as a whole during elections, some also prefer to support individual candidates and therefore cannot be stopped from supporting the individuals.
The NDC addressing the media on the said bribery scandal said the manner in which President Akufo-Addo took the money was wrong, saying that it had to go through the right process, but reacting to the accusation, Sammy Awuku said,”If someone wants to support the party, the person can go to the party office and pay to the treasurer or accountant. But there are people who believe in your work as an individual and prefer to support you as a person and that does not need to be booked,” he said.
When asked who took the video in question, he replied that,”It is not the said woman who recorded it but the man who accompanied the business woman to do the donation that recorded it. The said woman is not even well and she has regretted going to do the donation with that man.”
He said after election, the President will respond to this because if the issue is taken to court right now, it will not yield the expected attention.
Meanwhile, he was optimistic that the said video will not have an impact on the upcoming election.
Sammy Awuku also predicted that the NPP will win the election by 55 percent.
“I believe we will not get below what we had previously. At least we can get 55 percent,” he said.
Ghana/Atinkaonline.com/ Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori