The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of vote buying ahead of the Talensi by-elections on July 7.
The NPP’s Youth Organizer, Sammy Awuku on Eyewitness News claimed that the electorates in the constituency are being given GHC1,000 each, bags of cement and other goodies.
He said: “The NDC, everywhere you go, they bring goods and after they finish, they give GHC 1,000. First it was GHC 100 plus fertilizer. I think they want to starve the whole of Ghana and use it for by election.”
“And as for the sharing of goodies, it’s very, very symptomatic with the NDC’s character but we are solid on the ground,” he added.
Party bigwigs from the NPP, NDC, the Convention People’s Party and the People’s National Convention (PNC) are in Talensi to campaign for their respective candidates ahead of the July 7 by-election.
The Vice President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, running mate of the NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the CPP’s National Chairperson, Samia Nkrumah and a host of others are in the constituency.
Sammy Awuku claimed the Vice President arrived “in the vulgar display of opulence; about 16 V8 and all that but we are solid on the ground…”
He was however certain that the “NDC has been outclassed and out-strategized…you cannot bring over 16 V8 vehicles and blow dust and expect that the people that you are going to address will cover their nose and still listen to you.”
Sammy Awuku served notice that the NPP is taking the by-election “extremely serious and we are attaching every importance to it and we are not leaving any stone unturned.”
“We are mapping out one of our best strategies to win this election… The truth of the matter is that the people have been compressed and suppressed for so long and they are also determined and resolved that enough of some of these politics of deception.”
NDC denial
The National Orgniser of the NDC Kofi Adams has rubbished the claims by Sammy Awuku.
“We will not go about sharing money…I have been explaining to them that we will not be able to pay them money the way the opposition people are doing because day in, day out, that has been the cry that opponents are doing so well in terms of giving out money,” the Kofi Adams said on Eyewitness News.
He indicated that “if the NPP and its Youth Organizer think that that is the way to go by insulting the people of Talensi by the kind of allegations that he is making, it is up to them.”
According to him, the various developmental projects in the constituency will help them win the seat. “We have continued and we will continue with our development programmes that we are bringing to the people of Talensi.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @ osamidan