Mahama's father didn’t steal any generator – 98-year-old CPP man schools Abronye

The 98-year-old sub-chief of the Bole Traditional Area of Gonja, Gbenfuwura E.Y. Mahama, has refuted allegations by the controversial New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman for the Bono Region, Kwame Baffoe, aka Abronye, that Mr. E.A. Mahama (former President John Mahama’s father) was sacked as the Northern Regional Commissioner under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's administration after stealing a generator.

Abronye DC alleged that the Northern Region was experiencing dumsor, and Kwame Nkrumah ordered Mahama’s father to purchase a generator for his people. However, the minister allegedly stole the generator and took it home for his personal use. According to Abronye, this act triggered then-President Nkrumah to sack him and appoint Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s father as the Northern Regional Commissioner.

But speaking to Bole-based Nkilgi Fm, Gbenfuwura E.Y. Mahama, who is a brother and an aide to the first Member of Parliament (MP) for Western Gonja and Dr. Nkrumah’s first Northern Regional Commissioner, E.A. Mahama, disclosed that he installed the 60 kVA diesel generator Abronye DC is talking about in the 1960s and has all the facts.

The old sub-chief of Bole, who received electrical training from the Japanese through E.A. Mahama and was in charge of the generator at Bole, said it was actually meant for 12 Russian bungalows in Bole where a group of Soviet geological team resided and were prospecting for minerals.

He said there was excess power, so electricity was extended to the Bole District Commissioner's Bungalow, the Bole Health Centre, and the Bole Middle Boarding School (now Bole Senior High School), and that street lights for Bole town were later added.

Gbenfuwura E.Y. Mahama, a former District Organiser of Young Pioneers during Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s reign, said they later got information that Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia (father of current Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia) reported the matter to President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah that E.A. Mahama had misappropriated a generator meant for Yendi and that it was nowhere to be found.

According to the 98-year-old chief in Bole, the father of former President John Dramani Mahama (E.A. Mahama) was later invited to explain, and he told Dr. Nkrumah he actually brought the generator to Bole for the use of the Soviet geological team. Consequently, Nkrumah sent people to Bole to investigate, and "they came to see the generator working and serving all the 12 bungalows plus the Health Centre and the District Commissioner's Bungalow."

Gbenfuwura E.Y. Mahama disclosed that "Nkrumah said it was a 'genuine error' and a 'genuine mistake,' and so E.A. Mahama, who was dismissed as a Northern Regional Commissioner, was recalled to Accra and made a Minister."

The CPP veteran said some people claimed the generator was meant for Yendi, but the government had asked the Soviet geological team to come to Bole, so the generator was meant for Bole.

He said, "So when they brought it to Bole, people complained that it was the Yendi generator E.A. Mahama had brought to Bole for his personal use, but they found that it was meant for the Soviet geological team."

He called on Bole people to congratulate E.A. Mahama because, at that time, even Wa township had no electricity, and it was only the District Commissioner's Bungalow that had electricity.

He said part of the generator is still in Bole, adding, "I am 98 years old. I'm still alive... they can come and examine it."

TWI NEWS