GII accuses Freddie Blay of vote buying

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has appealed the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) to probe the acting National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, in connection with some 275 buses he intends gifting to his party for commercial purposes ahead of the party’s 7 July internal polls.

Programme Manager of GII, Mary Addah, said the move by Mr Blay is a clear case of vote-buying, a development that is against the electoral laws of the country.

She also questioned the source of the money for the procurement of the buses.

Mr Blay, on Friday, 11 May 2018 revealed that he is providing a bus to each of the 275 constituency arms of the party to be used to raise funds for its operations.

Mr Blay explained on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme 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”.

When asked how he will finance the procurement of the buses, he said: “When you are resourceful, you will be able to do that. You don’t need to do that from your own pockets, no, you can’t do it that way; as a politician, you need to be resourceful and be able to raise funds for activities of such kind.”

Speaking on AccraFM hosted by Chief Jerry Forson on Monday, 14 May, Ms Addah said: “Why is he buying all these buses at a time they are going for their elections? What is the intention behind the buses?”

“It is clearly an issue of vote-buying, if, indeed, it is true that he is buying these buses. Mr Blay knows it is against the electoral laws of Ghana to induce voters to vote for you.

“CHRAJ and EOCO must investigate this, it is a lot of money, and, so, Freddie Blay should be able to justify where he got the money for all these buses.”