The Member of Parliament for Bimbilla has provided evidence, which, he insists, supports his controversial claim that President John Evans Atta Mills, during the 2008 campaign period, wore a black “juju ring”.

The Bimbilla MP, Dominic Nitiwul, last week received a lot of public bashing when he stated on Metro TV that President Mills wore a supernatural ring on his middle finger which the MP said was provided for the then presidential candidate by an occultist for the purpose of the election.

But, at the weekend, appearing obviously agitated by all the public condemnation, Mr Nitiwul walked into the office of the New Statesman with a copy of the December 11, 2008 edition of the state-owned Daily Graphic.

As depicted clearly by the picture reproduced on our front page, President Mills indeed wore the unusually large ring, which, curiously enough, had to be 'cushioned' by a large bandage of plaster.

Was the plaster there because Prof Mills had suffered an injury on that finger and was still determined to wear the ring?

“Well, what I have heard from my consultations is that the ring was probably so spiritually hot that he needed the plaster to soothe the carrying finger,” the Bimbilla MP told the New Statesman.

“Is it otherwise not strange that Prof Mills would wear a black, large, strange ring on a bandaged finger?”

He added: “What makes it even weirder is that the black ring also had some numbers engraved on it. What did those numbers represent?”

As the picture shows, there was no wedding ring on any finger of Prof Mills at the time. The ring was mysteriously discarded after electoral victory was secured.

When Shamima Muslim of Citi FM asked Nii Lantey-Vanderpuye, Presidential Aide in charge of Operations, about the whereabouts of the so-called juju ring, he would only respond, “Shamima, are you wearing today the dress you wore yesterday?”

“No,” the host of Citi FM's Eye Witness News responded.

“Why?” the Presidential Aide enquired.

“Because it is dirty!” she said.

The picture of Prof Mills spotting the mystery ring was taken by a Graphic photo journalist at a press conference organized by the then NDC presidential candidate shortly after the first round of the presidential election but weeks before the 28 December runoff.

The MP says, “President Mills wore that strange ring during the electioneering campaign; he didn't wear it before and he hasn't worn it after. I am just relaying information from their own side of the political divide to the effect that he consulted an occultist, one of the varied and questionable spiritual consultations he invested in at the time, and one such feared and powerful occultist gave him that particular charmed ring with strict instructions. This is what I have been reliably informed and here is the evidence to support what I said.”

Mr Nitiwul says, “the President who touts himself as a devout Christian, more holier than the rest of us, the most God-fearing owes it to the millions of Ghanaian Christians, including me, to explain to us why he was wearing a juju ring as alleged by his own people?”

But, he gives one concession though, “If it is not a juju ring then he should tell us and explain the circumstances that made him exchange his wedding ring for that huge ring and why he had to wear it with a large band of plaster around that same finger. I believe these are legitimate questions, my brother.”

He adds, “It is difficult to believe that you only wear a ring during the electioneering campaign and that is it. You leave yourself open for some of the things that are coming up from especially their own source.”

He, however, insists that he never said it was the ring that helped President Mills to win the 2008 general election.

“I did not make the claim that President Mills won the election because of the ring. I said he wore a magic ring and there is a pictorial evidence for all Ghanaians who care about this issue to judge the claim I made. Whether it was the juju ring that helped him to win the election or not, only God knows,” he said.