I’m in the race – Says Mahama challenger

The man seeking to give President John Mahama a good run for his money in the flagbearership contest of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Boateng, yesterday stormed the offices of DAILY GUIDE brandishing his nomination forms and insisting he is in the race to win.

He said his posters and other electoral materials such as t-shirts would soon be splashed across the country to show the party that indeed he meant business.

Contrary to claims by party General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketiah that nobody had picked presidential nomination forms, George Boateng, a clearing agent with Aviance at the Kotoka International Airport, showed a copy of the forms he paid GHC1,000 for when he went to the NDC headquarters on Monday, rendering the NDC General Secretary’s assertions almost useless.

According to him, he was in the race to unseat President Mahama because of bad governance and deep-seated corruption, citing the alleged role of Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah in the World Cup scandal as an example.

George Boateng indicated that he had already purchased his GHC50,000 banker’s draft for the filing fee and that very soon he would launch his campaign to oust John Mahama.

Mr Asiedu Nketia, popularly called General Mosquito, had said the man who intends to contest President Mahama for the flagbearership position in the upcoming NDC primaries in early November was not mentally stable and that he should be sent to the Pantang Psychiatric Hospital for examination.

He insisted George Boateng, a polling station youth organiser in the Oyarifa constituency and a former member of the Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR) group, needed psychiatric evaluation.

Even though journalists, including Joy FM’s Kwakye Afreh Nuamah, who accompanied George Boateng to pick the nomination forms on Monday, had confirmed he indeed picked and paid for and was issued with the forms at the NDC’s plush headquarters located at Adabraka in Accra, Asiedu Nketia insisted no single person had come to the office to do so.

“It is never true that George Boateng has picked his nomination forms… Even President Mahama has not been there for his forms. No single person has picked the presidential election forms. What George is saying is not true,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Neat Fm yesterday.

According to him, “since we [NDC] opened the nomination for the presidential election, no single person has come to my office for the forms. I am the only person who can issue out the presidential forms to candidates, but the parliamentary candidates can go to their constituency secretaries for the forms.

“I was told yesterday (Monday) that George Boateng has visited the party office for the forms…but I told my clerks to hold on because I am not at the office,” the NDC General Secretary said.

But George Boateng disclosed, “General Mosquito called me on phone begging me to step aside but I told him “no!” He (Asiedu Nketia) thought I was joking with my ambition but realised I was serious when I picked my forms.

“Asiedu Nketiah should know that I did not go for the forms at the constituency office or Malata Market in Accra; I went to the NDC’s national headquarters for the forms with journalists to witness. He (Asiedu Nketia) should verify,” George said.

The clearing agent told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that Asiedu Nketia knew him very well and that they live in the same area at Oyarifa on the Aburi road.

Checks by DAILY GUIDE established that the President’s contender indeed paid for and was issued with the nomination forms by the Accountant at the NDC headquarters whose name was only given as Wilson.

George said the NDC General Secretary had even sent the Madina Constituency Chairman to beg him to step down.