Startling revelation last week by Kwaku Adu-Boahene, former Director General of the National Signals Bureau, that the security apparatus of the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government made huge payment to the then opposition party has raised eyebrows.
Adu-Boahene, in a letter he wrote from the custody of EOCO, listed a breakdown of the disbursement of some 49 million cedis he is being prosecuted for stealing.
He disclosed he paid a whopping GH¢8.3 million to an opposition party supposedly of the New Patriotic Party to aid their 2024 opposition party’s election campaign.
The alleged payment to the NPP’s political opponent by the security apparatus of the party’s own government has been heavily criticised with many people questioning why the then government would make such a payment to the opposition party.
In view of this, a Development Economist and lecturer, Dr Margaret Coomson, has described as “betrayal” the payment made to the opposition party.
It is a “stab in the back of the NPP and its 2024 presidential and parliamentary candidates” by the then government, she wrote in an article.
Read full article below:
Why did the Akufo-Addo government’s national security apparatus support the NDC in the 2024 election?
By Dr. Margaret Coomson, Development Economist
Imagine Real Madrid making a huge cash donation to its fiercest rivals, Barcelona, to aid Barca’s transfer activities. Or imagine Barcelona, sending technical and other form of support to Real Madrid, to aid Madrid’s preparation ahead of a crucial El Classic, to decide the La Liga title.
Such a scenario, to both sets of rival fans, is unfathomable. And in the most unlikely event that any official from either club, sanctioned such a strange gesture, it would be deemed sacreligious and unforgivable!
Well, that’s what happened right here in Ghana, in our political space in the build up to the crucial 2024 Elections.
According to former Director General of the National Signals Bureau, Kwabena Adu Boahene, the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government, through its security apparatus, supported the NPP’s fiercest rival in the election, with a mindboggling financial support of GHS 8.3m Cedis!
Yes you read right; the NPP Government, according to the former intelligence Chief, made a whopping financial assistance of GHS 8.3m to its opponent to aid their elections operations.
Interesting, isn’t it? Well, to some people, it is scandalous and a betrayal of unimaginable proportion, for the security apparatus of a sitting government, to extend such a support to a political rival seeking to axe the government and the NPP from office.
It is, therefore, unsurprising, and understandable that a number of NPP party stalwarts are seething with rage, following revelation by Kwabena Adu-Boahene, in his explosive letter, which also revealed another gleeful presentation of brand new vehicles to the then President-elect, at a time the President-elect himself had told the whole world that government’s coffers were empty to the bone!
A number of high-ranking NPP members I am very close to, have expressed their disgust over the what they rightly deem a complete betrayal by its own government and officials, against the NPP party and it’s Presidential Candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
“Why did our own Government’s National security apparatus support the NDC in the 2024 election? This revelation is shocking and I am very sad our own government, our own people did this against our party,” one leading national executive member of the party told me.
The angry national executive official believes the government’s national security apparatus could not have made such a huge payment to the opposition without official authorisation from the apex of the then government.
This is assertion is true, and I completely side with it. There was no way one person, in this case Adu Boahene alone, from the national security apparatus, could have made such a treacherous payment to a party’s rival without the blessings and support of the very top.
Adu Boahene’s claims, which have so far not been denied by key elements in the erstwhile government’s security chiefs, including Security Minister and National Security Coordinator, is a complete betrayal and a painful stab in the back of the NPP party, its Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates.
Concerned NPP members, and indeed Ghanaians, would be right to question the motives of those who planned and executed such huge payment by the Akufo-Addo government to its main political rival?
Since the shocking disclosure by Adu Boahene, I have been imagining what really was the motive of those who did this to betray their own party in a crucial election.
Those who ordered the payment and those who executed it, surely would have done so for two reasons; to sabotage the candidature of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, as is being speculated, or an attempt to buy their own security should the opposition party win, a fantasy which seems to have backfired, necessitating a straw-clutching disclosure by Adu Boahene.
Well, if you thought it’s unfathomable for a political party in government to extend huge financial support to its arch rival ahead of a crucial election to aid their preparations, you should know that the Akufo-Addo government, through its national security apparatus, stabbed its own party, the NPP in the back.
The lingering question remains: why did the Akufo-Addo government’s national security apparatus support the NPP’s arch rival in the 2024 election?
This is a question true and concerned members of the NPP, including the party’s 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates, will justifiably continue to ask themselves.
AME