Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Assin South Constituency, has refuted claims that he exchanged money with others in an effort to rig the recently completed Assin North by-election in the Central Region.
He claimed that because he never committed such crimes, the public should not believe any charges brought up against him.
The allegations, which the Deputy Education Minister believes are being spread by Joshua Akamba, the former national organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), are untrue.
“My attention has been drawn to a false and malicious allegation made by Joshua Akamba. I wish to state categorically that I never engaged in vote buying neither did I share money or goods before or during Assin North by-election.”
Reverend John Ntim Fordjour
The opposition NDC charged the ruling party with bribing some voters with money to support Charles Opoku of the NPP. Claims that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) bribed votes during the by-election on Tuesday have been refuted.
Richard Ahiagbah, the NPP’s Director of Communications, asserts that the allegations are untrue.
Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer for the NDC, made the claim, and Mr. Ahiagbah responded by saying, “Sammy went on a little run there to talk about lies and government inducement or party inducement, you see, those things are just not true.”
He rather expressed worry in future elections if political parties would peddle falsehoods as done by the NDC. He also challenged the NDC to come clean on the supposed lies the NPP peddled during their campaigns.
Mr. Ahiagbah asserts that the NDC mostly misled voters in its central message during the election campaign.
“I can tell you two grand lies or perhaps three or even four that the NDC peddled. The central proposition to the people was that one – they [NDC] want them to vote for the NDC’s James Gyakye Quayson because government wants to remove him from Parliament so we [NPP] can have a way to legalise LGBTQ in Ghana – blatant falsehood but that was their message.”
Richard Ahiagbah
Yammin Jabs NPP Officials
According to Joseph Yammin, the National Organizer of the NDC, the dedication and sacrifices in the area by members of the party helped them win the by-election for the Assin North constituency.
He claims that at one point, NDC personnel stationed in some villages had to spend the night there in order to persuade residents to support their candidate James Gyakye Quayson.
“National Executives were assigned to the communities and they slept in the communities. They slept with them in the night, woke up with them in the morning and ate with them. That was how the NDC was operating so at the time the NPP officials were snoring in very good air-conditioned hotel rooms, we were in the bush sleeping.”
Joseph Yammin
He further stated that those who were not assigned to communities had to spend the night at beer joints because there was no hotel space available for them.
“There is a beer bar opposite the Melcom building; that was where some members of the NDC were sleeping. We sat there till daybreak and by the time we realized it is already 5am. Then we went back to our designated places.”
Joseph Yammin
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