Buses For Votes: Alan "Cash" Sprays

The extravagant campaign of one of the Presidential aspirants of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Alan Kyeremanten on Constituency Executives throughout the country has come under serious scrutiny by some Party faithfuls. Some Party people have argued that the strategy being used by Alan could be referred to as giving the Presidency which is the highest position in this country to the highest bidder and not to the one who will be suitable for the job.

Among his campaign messages are “Adwuma Wura”, “Alan Cash”, “Cash for the People” etc – all of which depict and convey one thing – that Alan Kyeremanten has money. Indeed he was the first among the 18 presidential contestants to come out with a full-page colour advertisement, using some of the above-mentioned messages.

During his first round of campaign, long before they were asked to resign, the Executives of each of the 230 Constituencies were promised amounts ranging between ¢350m to ¢500m, averaging ¢400m. Such is the amount being dished out to each of the 230 Constituency Executives throughout Ghana by Mr. “Cash for the People”, with a view to soliciting their votes.

In some of the constituencies the monies were converted into vehicles for the Executives.

In the form of “cooperatives”, the Executives of each Constituency were asked to prepare a “proposal”, and apply for a loan. They were assured that “Alan Cash” would make sure that they accessed the money.

At the centre of this controversial loan for Constituency Executives is the Prudential Bank. Alan and his men at these times had in their possession Prudential Bank loan application forms which they readily handed over to the Executives to complete, attach their passport-size photographs and then submit to the Bank.

True to his words, some of the Executives have had the loans approved. In the Eastern Region for instance, some of the Executives have received their loans. Most of the Executives applied for the loan to purchase commercial vehicles.

The Upper Manya Constituency a few days ago received a brand new gigantic KIA Truck, and Chronicle has already documented a huge cache of evidence of this practice and decided to find out the truth in the matter.

Posing as an investigator with the Prudential, this reporter called some recipients of the loan and applicants who were waiting for their share of the booty, obtaining recordings of the lucky beneficiaries of the Alan bonanza.

Meanwhile credible information has revealed that the Yilo-Krobo Constituency has put in an application for ¢400million, New Juabeng South for ¢500million and New Juabeng North for ¢350million, implying that Hackam Owusu Agyeman’s Constituency has been marked for a humiliating drubbing since his Chairman, who is a delegate may find it difficult to vote against the Cash man, his provider.

Some of the Constituency Chairmen the Chronicle spoke to confirmed receiving the loans, others who had not received theirs were optimistic that it would definitely come to their turn while some also complained that it had taken too long considering the fact that some of their colleagues had already received theirs. When The Chronicle undercover team spoke with the Regional Chairman of Lower West Akyem, Mr. Awuku Peprah, he said they had sent their proposals through Alan’s ‘boys’ but they had not yet received anything.

He said Upper Manya Constituency had already received their loan but he did not understand what had caused the delay in receiving theirs.

They had requested for either a Tata haulage truck or a KIA haulage truck but did not know if the unavailability of the vehicles had caused the delay.

Mr. Demena, the Lower Manya Constituency Chairman, said they had also applied for the loan last month but they had not yet received anything, adding, “we requested for a bus, and they said we should sign an undertaking. We did and deposited it with Alan’s Secretary but we have not received it.”

Some high-profile Party Executives who thronged the offices of The Chronicle but pleaded anonymity wondered if these loans were backed by collateral and whether the Party Executives would not treat them in the same manner in which Ghanaians treated the erstwhile Poverty Alleviation Fund loans. They called for a probe.

At the Prudential Bank, the Reporter was told that the Bank does not divulge such information to the public as expected.

The Head of Corporate Affairs, Ms. Akua Yankah told The Chronicle that although she had not enquired about the transaction which is alleged to be assisted by Mr. Kyeremanten, the Bank would not engage in any unproductive business.

She concluded by clearing the notion that the Prudential Bank was for a certain Party adding that the Bank was ready to assist everyone, depending on how productive a request would be.

Some Party Constituency Executives, particularly, Chairmen also contacted confirmed the loan deal adding that they were asked to sign only an undertaking without any collateral.

Political analysts this Reporter spoke to opine that the level of money being used by presidential aspirants as a form of incentive, will put the Party in a volatile position and that such a favour for the Executives alone will be a great disservice to sacrifice and commitment to the Party, an attribute that shot the party to power in 2000. Past and non-executives of the Party will be aggrieved about this situation.

Efforts to contact Alan’s campaign team proved futile since all of them have decided to keep mum on the issue.

After failed attempts to contact Mr. Kyeremanten himself, the Paper contacted a member of the youth wing of his campaign team, Prince Armah, but he said he was not in a capacity to respond to the queries.

He subsequently gave this Reporter the telephone number of the Public Relations Manager of the Roads Transport Ministry, Mr. Ken Anku whom he identified as Alan’s Media Relations Manager but Mr Anku in turn denied his affiliation to the team and said he was only an admirer.

Again, this Reporter contacted another member of the team, Mr. John Kumah, who said he did not have any information but admitted that it could be part of the Rural Micro and Small Co-operative Scheme(ROMSEC) initiative which does not deal with Prudential Bank but deals only with Apex Banks.

The Bank’s Managing Director is Mr. Sekyere Abankwa, Chairman of the Board of Metro Mass Transit and the Bank’s Board is chaired by Mr. J S Addo, former Governor of the Bank of Ghana.