Minority Leader Confesses: Mahama used dev’t projects to win election

As members of the New Patriotic Party continue to mischievously accuse the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the President of rigging the last election even when the apex court of the land upheld the president’s legitimacy, Minority Leader and MP for Suame, Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu, has finally confessed John Dramani Mahama duly won the December 7, 2012 presidential elections.

Mr Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu, who was one of the leading accusers of the Electoral Commission, NDC and President Mahama of conspiring to rob the NPP of victory, and indeed stated at a rally in Kumasi in December 2012 that NPP’s findings revealed that over 150,000 votes were stolen and added to the President’s votes, has in a 360 turn around admitted that his party only engaged in a frivolous process by challenging results of the last election in court.

In what could be an embarrassment to the three petitioners, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey, and perhaps admonishing his party folks to stop accusing the President of rigging the last election, the Minority leader is now accusing the government of rather spending a whopping Ghc2.8bn in projecting the President to win the elections.

Without providing any evidence to back his allegation, which he said he would never apologize to the President after the Information Ministry demanded that from him, the Suame legislature counseled the NDC to stop beating their chest that President Mahama used only six weeks to campaign to beat Nana Akufo-Addo who started his campaign three years earlier.

In an interview with Myjoyonline.com on President John Mahama’s one year in office, Mr Osei-Mensah Bonsu stated "What happened in 2012, two months before the election? The huge over expenditure that they involved themselves in, to the tune of 2.8 billion cedis…And the apologists of the NDC will turn round and say John Mahama took only six weeks to campaign and defeated Akufo-Addo.

"Now the country knows that 2.8 billion of hard currency was utilized to project the cause of John Mahama, monies that were not given to him by Parliament. Clearly embezzlement of state finances to reposition himself. That is what happened."

It is not quite clear whether the Minority knew that the President legitimately won when he led his colleagues to boycott the President’s investitures, vetting of his ministers and state of the nation address under the excuse that three of his party leaders were challenging his legitimacy hence the Minority does not regard him as validly elected.

He said due to the huge sums of state funds injected into the President’s campaign, which he said made it possible for President Mahama to triumph over Nana Akufo-Addo, statutory funds are in arrears.

"...Because of that, even statutory commitment could not be met. For nine months, they couldn't transfer monies into the District Assemblies Common Fund, to GETFund, monies that were meant for road fund were taken away. Health Insurance, they couldn't pay for ten months,” he added.

But government in a swift reaction described as "totally false" the claim by Minority Leader to the effect that Ghc2.8bn was sank into the 2012 campaign of President John Mahama.

The statement signed by Deputy Information Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, said it regrets the fact that the Minority Leader "....chose to dabble in anti-government propaganda of the most undesirable kind when attributing the budget deficit of 2012 to embezzlement during the electioneering campaign that year" and asked of him to retract his comments and apologize to the President.

But in a response, Mr Osei-Mensah Bonsu said he would not apologize and said he would fully study the government’s statement to advise himself. He, however, noted that he was not convinced that he erred to warrant the apology the deputy minister was demanding.