Member of Parliament(MP) for Subin Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Hon Eugene Boakye Antwi has stated that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cannot absolve himself of claims by some people in the New Patriotic Party(NPP) that he supports the candidature of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
According to him, the fact that nobody has come out to say he/she has been instructed by the President does not mean he does not have his favourite.
“In the first place, Akufo-Addo is a politician. Do you think if the President had told somebody like the Road Minister to support one candidate will he come out to say?” he asked
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo in an earlier statement at a meeting with communicators of the party at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, August 2, rejected allegations that the government has thrown its full force behind Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s presidential primaries.
The president said the claims are false and being made maliciously.
According to him, there is no single person in the party who can say he (President Akufo-Addo) has asked him or her to support Dr Bawumia.
“…Again, the assertion that the government is allegedly intimidating or coercing party faithful to throw their support behind one of the aspirants and we have to be open about it and the allegations that the government is putting all its authority behind the Vice President, I want to say in very plain terms to you and to the whole world that it is a very false and malicious narrative, and there is not a single truth to it.”
“That is why I can beat my chest and I can say without any fear of contradiction, that there is not a single person in the NPP who can say that I had asked him or her to support this or that aspirant.”
But responding to the President in an interview with Angel FM Kumasi, Mr Eugene Boakye Antwi insisted that, the President can’t be innocent on the matter.
“If only he will cast his vote and has the resources he will influence the outcome. So long as you have a preference, you are bias. It would have been considerate if the President was not going to vote in the election, but since he is going to vote then of course he will have his people to influence, we are all politicians”, Hon Eugene Boakye Antwi stated.
“So long as he will vote in the election means that he supports someone, therefore he will not sit idle. But he will talk to people who will listen to him to support his candidate. So far as Akufo Addo is going to vote, he will campaign for his favourite and he will not come and tell you”, he stressed.