275 Buses: NDC can ‘borrow’ my idea to help their ‘crowd renting’ – Freddie Blay

It was not long ago when MyNewsGh.com reported , through an NDC MP’s words, that the NDC was very good at bussing people to locations for its events, and a factor which led to their humiliation with 44.4% of votes despite the crowds.

A major boost has been given the venture as acting Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddy Blay, has restated his promise to help provide a bus to each of his party’s (NPP’s) 275 constituency to be used for commercial purposes to raise funds for its operations, and has called on groups- including the NDC- who make use of massive bussing services to consider the idea too, as it is good and cost-effective.

Appearing on TV3’s New Day with Kwakye Afreh Nuamah, the Acting National Chairman said he (through the NPP) was going use the ‘facility’ to procure the buses which will work and pay for itself over a period for the party to own it. And he said it wasn’t just the NPP that such an idea will serve usefully:

“… Not only our party, [but] NDC and all other parties go to funerals, they attend some other conferences, they need transportation and they have to pay a lot. But if they have their own buses to take them up and down it will benefit the party, it will be more profitable to also run.” He said.

He intimated that when the NDC and other groups are able to follow through with the idea, “they will have enough money to buy computers to do other things so that they don’t depend on other people.” He advised, recalling how difficult it was for President Akufo-Addo to raise money in 2016 as a candidate.

He said the idea didn’t just come up because he is running for office:

“We have been incubating this idea for some time now”, he revealed.

“It is an easy way of resourcing the party” he added.

“The constituency will benefit from it and after two years, the buses remain property of the constituency,” he explained the ‘policy’.

Kwakye Afreh Nuamah prodded him repeatedly to confirm that the buses will be supplied before the party’s national executive elections on 7 July 2018.

MyNewsGh.com‘s readers will recall we reported that Mr Blay said on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Friday, 11 May that:

“I am supplying buses to all the constituency branches of the NPP. Each constituency will receive a bus from me personally for commercial purposes just to raise money for party activities”.

Since the above statement, The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has accused the former CPP MP of vote buying.

But Mr Blay has parried off those accusations and explained that the buying of those buses is something the NPP, through him has been “incubating” and should not be taken out of context.