Mahama slams Multimedia for fake news reportage

Former President John Dramani Mahama has expressed his disappointment in media giant, Multimedia Group Limited for producing a news item that aims at ruining the reputation he has built over the years.

The former president says Multimedia is getting involved in what he describes as ‘political propaganda’.

The media house published a story on Monday, June 4, 2018, alleging that Mr Mahama’s name has come up in ongoing investigations in the bribery case against the president of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantakyi.

The news item by Joy FM's Evans Mensah and carried on the company's online portal, myjoyonline.com detailed that Kwesi Nyantakyi in a written statement had stated that the former president and NDC were given an amount of $8 million ahead of 2016 elections

According to the story, “It is emerging former government officials, including the ex-president John Mahama may be investigated by the police CID over claims they benefitted from donations by investor friends linked to Kwesi Nyantakyi”.

But in his reaction, the former president tweeted that “Over the years people fought & in some cases paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy today. When a supposedly respected media house like Multimedia allows itself to be used for political propaganda, it besmirches our common honour & the sacrifices we’ve made as a people”

Over the years people fought & in some cases paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy today. When a supposedly respected media house like Multimedia allows itself to be used for political propaganda, it besmirches our common honour & the sacrifices we’ve made as a people

— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) June 5, 2018

Meanwhile, National Organiser of the NDC Kofi Adams has also trashed the claims in a statement indicating that neither John Mahama nor his campaign team received the said amount.

“This lie and many desperate acts over the last few days cannot and will not exonerate President Akufo-Addo from the various acts of wanton corruption and the revelation that Nyantakyi is captured on the said tape making,” he noted

Read full text of his rebuttal below

RE: ANAS VIDEO: MAHAMA’S NAME POPS UP IN $8 MILLION NYANTAKYI SCANDAL

I have noted, as the Campaign Coordinator of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Campaign in 2016, a desperately concocted story carried by Accra radio station, JoyFM, that an unknown person gave an amount of $8 million to the party for the elections.

This is subterfuge and a deliberately woven lie, between JoyFM, Kwesi Nyantakyi and the Police CID, for the sole purpose of sharing the profound damage done to the President and some of his lieutenants by claims made in the Anas video by Kwesi Nyantakyi.

This lie and many desperate acts over the last few days cannot and will not exonerate President Akufo-Addo from the various acts of wanton corruption and the revelation that Nyantakyi is captured on the said tape making,including asking for various sums of money from people on his behalf.

Neither the NDC nor our candidate, John Dramani Mahama, received any amount from an unknown person.

Kofi Adams
National Organiser, NDC
Accra