Only drug money can fund NPP’s ‘dreamy’ promises - Anyidoho

The litany of ambitious promises (one factory for each of the 216 constituencies; one irrigation dam per farming village in the three regions up north; and the allocation of $1m per year to each of the 275 constituencies in the country) made by the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) can only be financed through drug money supplied by drug barons, a Deputy General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Koku Anyidoho, has said.

“If they [NPP] are going to scrap taxes and they won’t go for loans, where will they get the money to build one factory in every district, a borehole in every hamlet and every village in the three northern regions, and then now distribute four million dollars a month (sic) or something to each constituency? Where is the money? They say the money is there. Maybe he is referring to some cocaine money that we don’t know [about] because you [NPP] won’t take loans [and] you are going to scrap taxes [so] the only way that I can believe that they will find money to do all their dreamy things is to go back to cocaine trade or for that matter open up this country for the international drug barons to take this country hostage and give them dirty money to fund their development agenda,” Mr Anyidoho told Prince Minkah on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday, 31 August.

Once again, he said: “Akufo-Addo is going to lead Ghana to become a Cocaine Coast, open up our borders for drug barons to move into this country and turn Ghana into a hub for drug trade,” he alleged, insisting: “I am telling you Prince Minkah that if you’re not going for loans, and you’re scrapping taxes, where will you get money from to build the factories, build the dams, distribute money like confetti to constituencies? You can only get it from the illicit drug trades. That is the only way they can fund their activities: by opening up to the international drug trade and they’ve done it before…”

Responding to the allegation on the same programme, Mr Anyidoho’s opposite number, Nana Obiri Boahen said: “Treat that sentiment as bunkum and balderdash, loose and unguarded statements. Don’t worry yourself about this irresponsible talk.”

He said the NPP and its flag bearer Nana Akufo-Addo are “going to do it, we’ll do it, we have capable men, we are not kleptomaniacs, we are going to do it and we’ll do it.”

According to him, state funds that were corruptly diverted by the government through programmes such as the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) and the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) coupled with unjustified payments made to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome, as well as local firms rlg and Smarttys Management and Productions Limited, could be pooled to execute some of the projects the NPP has promised.

“The amount involved in Gyeeda, SADA, Woyome, Smarrtys, rlg, will be sufficient enough,” he emphasised, adding: “They are visionless, they have no foresight, they don’t think outside the box, they are pessimists, they are interested in ‘let’s create, loot and share’. They are interested in wanton and reckless dissipation of the country’s resources, why do you even pay attention to this class of politicians? They think of the next election, we think of the next generation.” He alleged that: “In Brong Ahafo alone, government has dished out 65 vehicles. Is koku Anyidoho listening?”