MP: Wontumi extorting bribes from MPs

The opposition Member of Parliament for Asante Akyem North has accused the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, of sabotaging the efforts of incumbent MPs of the biggest opposition party in the region, by extorting bribes from them.

According to Kwadwo Baah Agyemang, Mr Antwi-Boasiako, more commonly referred to as Chairman Wontumi, has been making efforts to scuttle the ambitions of MPs who refused to give in to his bribe demands, the most recent being the MP for Manhyia North, Collins Owusu Amankwaa.

Mr Baah Agyemang made the allegations on Accra100.5fm’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, Tuesday March 8, 2016. He said the party’s regional chairman was at work to make the sitting Manhyia North MP unpopular to pave the way for him to impose his preferred candidate on polling station executives for the upcoming poll because of Mr Amankwaa’s refusal to pay a bribe.

He told host CJ Forson on the show that Chairman Wontumi had made similar demands of him when he was also contesting to be re-elected as the NPP’s candidate for Asante Akyem constituency for the 2016 elections. “It’s happened to me before. I remember when Chairman Adams (NPP’s former Upper East regional chairman) died and the MPs and constituency executives had converged on Georgia Hotel, which was about a month to the primaries. I approached him and asked him: ‘Chairman, how are you assisting me with this election?’ He told me: ‘Go find money, so I do mafia for you, lest you lose the election.’ I was shocked.”

However, Opoku Mensah, spokesman for Mr Antwi-Boasiako, refuted the allegations saying they were simply meant to tarnish the image of the party’s chairman. He said the allegations were borne out of hatred, as Chairman Wontumi had never made any demands on any parliamentary candidate.