Nana Akomea, Murtala spar over Akufo-Addo’s 2013 ‘swift’ congrats to Mahama

Nana Akomea of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, today, March 5, 2021; produced a video that sought to prove that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had swiftly congratulated then president John Dramani Mahama after the Supreme Court of Ghana delivered judgment on the 2013 petition.

“I am saying to you that within minutes (Akufo-Addo called to congratulate Mahama), I have the video here. The video shows that in the middle of President Mahama receiving congratulations from his people, in the middle of it, then he gets a call.

“Then vice-president president Amissah-Arthur came to announce to the people in his office that they have just got a call from Akufo-Addo congratulating him. Right there in his office. I didn’t see Murtala but he says he was there, but that is fine,” he added.

Akomea made the comments on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana show which was monitored by GhanaWeb. His co-panellist, Murtala Mohammed disputed that Akufo-Addo had swiftly congratulated Mahama.

The current National Democratic Congress lawmaker for Tamale Central and then Deputy Minister for Information as at 2013 insisted that the issue under contention was not whether or not Akufo-Addo placed that call but that it was not swift.

Akomea produced a video of a news report in which Mahama is seen receiving a call and later his veep confirming to the press that Akufo-Addo had called to congratulate Mahama.

Murtala, who says he was at the presidency at the time, insisted that Mahama received different calls that day but that Akufo-Addo’s was not part of the earlier ones.

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an Election Petition filed by Mahama against the re-election of Akufo-Addo after the 2020 election. Mahama held a press conference yesterday rejecting the outcome of the petition. He has yet to announce his next line of action after the unfavourable verdict.