The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has strongly denied claims that it received financial support from the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government ahead of the 2024 elections.
The CPP stated emphatically that the party relied on its meagre resources and not on any support from the ruling party at the time.
The rebuttal comes after former National Signals Bureau (NSB) boss Kwabena Adu-Boahene, currently on trial for allegedly misappropriating GH¢49 million, claimed part of the funds were distributed to opposition parties for “covert national security operations”.
In a memo addressed to the National Security Coordinator, the former spy chief claimed the huge sums in question were used for covert national security operations.
This, he said, included some GH₵8.3 million for “communications equipment” for an opposition party and nearly GH₵1 million in payments to legislators for passing key security laws.
Consequently, the former spy chief accused the Attorney General of launching a malicious prosecution against him.
However, CPP General Secretary Kwame Nkrumah Botsio dismissed the allegations in a fiery interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Friday:
“We did not receive any support [from the NPP]. We received support from well-wishers, and if we had received anything close to what is being bandied about, we would have won the election.”
Botsio highlighted the party’s financial constraints during the campaign: “As you can tell, we were so resource-strapped, we did not even have one TV advert, not one radio advert, and just had one billboard.”
He condemned the alleged misuse of state funds: “The allegations that are coming up are preposterous because these are taxpayers’ money. Whether in a rich country or a poor country, you don’t just dole out US$500,000 to an opposition party for whatever reason, especially as it falls outside of what you call security reasons.”
The General Secretary also detailed the party’s grassroots approach to election monitoring:
“We did the collation ourselves on my laptop, and our able regional chairmen did the collation themselves at the regional level and forwarded the results to us. We did not have any collation equipment at all except our laptops.”
The CPP’s denial comes as the high-profile corruption case continues to reveal explosive claims about alleged financial irregularities during the 2024 election period.
READ ALSO: Breakdown of charges in GH¢49m cybersecurity scandal against Adu-Boahene
Meanwhile, the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has challenged Mr Adu-Boahene to disclose the specific opposition parties he gave the cash to procure election collation logistics and equipment because the umbrella party was not a beneficiary.
Speaking to JoyNews, the Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the NDC, Dr Rashid Tanko-Computer, dismissed the claims, saying, “On authority, I’m telling you the NDC has nothing to do with what came out of that story.
“Those people they’re referring to supported them during their recent demonstration. He knows his partners—that’s who he was referring to. And I’m sure everybody has seen that. My opponent would give me resources to defeat him in an election? Does that make sense?” he quizzed.
Dr Tanko further asserted that other political parties in opposition had not shown any real interest in unseating the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and were often aligned with them.
“When we were in IPAC, anytime the NDC opposed the EC and NPP, those parties sided with the EC and NPP. The NDC has nothing to do with this. We fought hard, used our own resources, and dealt a heavy blow to the NPP.”
When asked whether the NDC might have received funds unknown to him, he dismissed the suggestion.
“I can speak on authority—it’s not possible at all. These guys are just clutching at straws. It won’t help them. They should go and negotiate a plea bargain; otherwise, he [Adu-Boahene] could be looking at 25 years.”
Dr Tanko added that the NDC fully supports the Attorney General’s efforts to prosecute the former NSB boss.
“The party has no business with whatever rubbish is coming out—we are not part of it.”
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
