There is nothing wrong if President John Mahama decides to give out gifts on his campaign tour, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Ade Coker has said.
According to him, those criticising President Mahama for supposedly giving out money at Abossey Okai in Accra last week were being “hypocritical” since there was absolutely nothing wrong with that.
“If I were to advice the President, I will tell him to go ahead…our culture allows us to give out alms… Is the President a super human being? Mr Coker queried in a radio discussion programme on Accra based Onua FM on Friday morning.
According to him, the president on daily basis gives out alms and that when he goes to palaces of chiefs, he gives out gifts in the form of drinks.
“Recently he gave the Gonja chief a vehicle and the chief has admitted to that…so what is wrong with that, assuming he did that,” he said.
He said his brothers in the other side [NPP] recently shared koko [porridge] and waakye [beans and rice] and there was nothing absolutely wrong with it.
“They even went to do hairdressing, all in the name of winning votes,” he said.
“Do you know what is called doctoring of tapes” and suggested the video doing the rounds could have been doctored.
“I followed the President and did not see him sharing money. Let’s assume he did that, could he have shared money for all the people who were there,” Mr Coker asked.
A video doing the rounds on social media shows President Mahama handing out something to some people during a campaign tour of Abossey Okai last week.
Some discussions have suggested that the President was “buying votes” by that act but aides to the President have explained that the President only handed out money to a child who was selling eggs and the eggs had been trampled upon following attempts by surging supporters who wanted to catch a glimpse of the President.
The girl was said to be crying since the eggs she was selling in traffic had been pushed down.
President Mahama, upon realising what had happened, was said to have singled the girl out and gave her GH¢50 to compensate for the loss.
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