A former deputy Fisheries Minister under the Kufuor administration, Daniel Dugan has accused the camp of Nana Akufo-Addo of vote buying during the New Patriotic Party (NPP’s) Super Delegates’ Congress in August.
Dugan, a member of the campaign team of Alan Kyeremanten, a flagbearer aspirant of the NPP said he has the conviction that “money changed hands,” that is why Nana Addo, another flagbearer aspirant won by 81% of the total valid votes cast.
The NPP on August 31 organized the congress to reduce the number of flagbearer aspirants from seven to five.
[contextly_sidebar id=”K0NEftNFUueGjFuBVUJYDC33beFGY9Va”]A few days after the congress, the Northern Regional chairman of the party, Daniel Bugri Naabu told Citi News he had set up a committee to investigate persons who voted for Kyeremanten because they had broken their oath which was to vote for Nana Addo.
He also served notice that the culprits will be punished accordingly for disobeying his orders.
After widespread condemnation, Naabu retracted his statement describing it as an attempt at humor.
The campaign team of Kyeremanten later said they had heard of incidence of intimidation and called for the head of Naabu since his statements confirmed their suspicions.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Dugan alleged that aside the reports of intimidation, there were also reported cases of vote buying from the Nana Addo camp.
He quickly clarified that he is in no way accusing Kyeremanten’s closest contender, Nana Addo of ordering the vote buying.
“I am not accusing Nana Akufo-Addo of vote buying but the evidence that we gathered from the field from our trusted agents indicated that yes, they saw these [vote buying] happening,” he said.
Dugan added that he is making the vote buying allegations because it is a normal occurrence in the political domain and “I need not have the full evidence.”
Asked whether Kyeremanten will press charges since engaging in vote buying is against the nations’ constitution, Dugan said: “If we really wanted to press charges, we should have done that long ago. It’s gone.”
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By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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