Despite the election of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as vice-president of Ghana, following the victory of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2016 elections, his image as a “liar” and one who makes unsubstantiated claims remains, the National Democratic Congress’ Koku Anyidoho has said.
Mr Anyidoho, the NDC’s Deputy General Secretary, has been the most consistent critic of the former Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, daring him on several occasions to come up with evidence to back his assertions, notably that Ghana’s electoral roll contained many aliens.
Dr Bawumia, while leading the charge by his party in 2015 for a new voters’ register for the 2016 polls – a request later turned down by the Electoral Commission – had said the NPP, after comparing the electoral registers of both Ghana and Togo, had uncovered the names of more than 76000 citizens of neighbouring Togo on Ghana’s voter roll, promising to provide more names as it undertook an audit of the poll roll.
But the former spokesperson to late president John Atta Mills insisted that Dr Bawumia’s failure to use the 2016 voter exhibition to prove his case and the denial by the Togolese Electoral Commission that it had given out a copy of that country’s register to any political organisation in Ghana dented the credibility of the now vice-president-elect.
Mr Anyidoho also insisted that the campaign promise by Dr Bawumia and the NPP to provide every constituency in the country with $1million was another indication that the renowned economist had a penchant for being economical with the truth.
Speaking on Accra FM’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, on Friday December 30, 2016, in the aftermath of the NDC’s electoral loss, which will see it return to opposition for at least the next four years beginning January 7, 2017, Mr Anyidoho said his views on Bawumia remain the same despite the latter’s imminent elevation to the position of the second most powerful man in the country.
“…Nothing changes. I made those statements based on facts. Nothing changes,” the NDC’s Deputy General Secretary told Francis Xavier Sosu, who co-hosted a special edition of the show with Chief Jerry Forson.
He continued: “…The main issue at hand was the issue of the Togolese register. Will he be able to produce that evidence?
“I insist that Bawumia has brought no evidence to show there are aliens on the voters’ register. At the end of the day it was the same register used in conducting polls which they won. Will Bawumia say the votes of foreigners aided their victory?”
According to him, Dr Bawumia now has the “opportunity to prove me wrong” regarding his claims and electoral promises now that he will be at the helm of affairs.
Mr Anyidoho assured he would grant Dr Bawumia due regard as vice president of the country, insisting however that it does not invalidate the fact that many of the claims he made as vice-presidential candidate were, in his view, false.
“So nothing has changed. Yes, he is going to become the vice president of the Republic of Ghana, he is going to occupy that high office. Whatever respect that we must accord him as the vice president of the Republic of Ghana, we shall accord him, because we are according the respect to the office and not the person. So we shall give it to him but it…doesn’t take away from the fact that there were no truths in the things he said previously,” he added.
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