The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has defended his stance on security personnel being paid monies to influence their voting during the special voters exercise.
Prior to the special voting, the NDC had raised some concerns on vote buying, alleging security agencies had been paid some money, a claim the IGP dismissed as allowances due them.
Speaking in an interview, Mr. Mahama, however, insists “it’s not true”, and that the IGP “was being economical with the truth”.
“I was not talking of the GHC600; the GHC600 is their duty allowance, I know that, but monies were paid into their accounts… aside from what the IGP talked about as their duty allowance, monies were paid into people’s accounts. I don’t say it’s a bad thing, but I say if the purpose is to influence them, then it’s inappropriate and I don’t think it will buy their conscience.
“You see the thing about the security service is, it’s not before an election that you give them GHC1000 or GHC2000, but it is the moral of the story, let’s see how you treat them… and we go more for raising their confidence, raising their respect in the eyes of the public… but when you have a government that treats the service with thugs and vigilantes, you realize that the level of indiscipline and all that kind of thing begins to take place”.
Commenting on the feedback he gathered from the special voting conducted days ago, Mr. Mahama noted that, “it went quite well” and as many people present voted although there were “few complaints of some people whose names were not” in the register.
“I’m quite satisfied, we’ve covered a lot of bases. It’s been a tight campaign generally because of the Covid outbreak and restrictions on movements and gathering; it delayed the last phase of the campaign even though we had begun from last year”.
“I don’t think it is earth shaking… special voting is something we’ve done over the years”.
The Police Administration on Monday debunked assertions being peddled by the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, who in a campaign tour, disclosed that officers were being bribed to vote for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. James Oppong Boanuh, in an interview, said those assertions were unfounded and intended to denigrate the institution of the Police Service.
He explained that the monies given to the officers were their election duty allowances, which, hitherto, were paid after the officers had completed their election assignment, sometimes affecting their morale in the performance of that special national duty.
The IGP further noted, the monies given to them were a routine duty allowance and not what the leading opposition party was saying in public domain, adding that, there was a similar disbursement during the COVID-19 lockdown.
