Claims of Mahama sharing cash for votes: Daily Guide and NPP exposed

The 'Daily Guide' newspaper, owned by the Acting National Chairman of the NPP, Freddy Blay, has once again been caught in another monumental lie against President John Mahama.

Yesterday, under the screaming front page headline " Mahama shares Cash for Votes", the paper claimed that the President went distributing cash at Sabon Zongo at Abossey Okai during his Greater Accra Regional campaign tour last week. The story, written by Charles Takyi-Boadu read in part;

"President John Mahama, in his inordinate ambition for re-election in the December general election, has been spotted sharing money on his campaign trail. The most recent is a video footage on social media in which the President is seen standing in his open-top V8 Toyota Landcruiser and doling out cash to people in the street during a campaign tour of the Greater Accra Region.

The video, which has since gone viral and captured on several websites was obviously shot by an amateur photographer who was reportedly observing proceedings from the balcony of a story building".

The Daily Guide's story goes on to say that "In that video, the Presidential convoy is seen moving at a snail pace on the streets of Sabon Zongo at Abossey Okai with President Mahama spotting a white cap on top of a black coloured T-shirt and responding to cheers from admirers. As the crowd cheered him on, he beckoned someone from the crowd to come and ordered his driver to stop. He is then seen reaching out for money from the vehicle and giving it out to the person who meandered his way through the crowd amidst tight security to take the money.

As the vehicle began to move, the President beckoned a few others to come and he reached out for more cash from the car for them. He repeated the gesture a number of times as the crowd surged forward to grab his hand obviously for some cash"

However, enquiries made by this paper indicate that the Daily Guide's report is lie, a concocted story from the fertile imagination of the writer, Charles Takyi-Boadu and the editor of the paper, Fortune Alimi.

When this paper contacted President Mahama yesterday via phone and put the allegation before him, he simply laughed it off, explaining what happened on that occasion. According to him, when they entered Sabon Zongo, the passage was narrow and the crowd following him was very heavy.

From the top of his vehicle, he saw a little girl with a tray of boiled egg in the crowd being pushed by the cheering crowd amidst the jostling. The tray fell from the girl's head and the crowd trampled on the fallen eggs. The girl then burst into tears. Touched by what only he could see because of where he was standing, he ordered the man who commands his convoy (who was in his vehicle) to stop the convoy.

The convoy thus stopped. President Mahama said he then took GH¢50 from his ADC, pointed to the crying girl in the crowd and then reaching down from the top of the vehicle, gave it to a woman standing by her thinking she was with the girl.

However, he was surprised to see the girl still crying so he asked her if the woman was the mother. When the girl shook her head and he noticed the woman had moved away, he took another GH¢50 from his ADC and gave it to the girl. This drew wild cheers from the teeming crowd.

President Mahama recalled that it was even the crowd that helped the girl forward towards his vehicle to enable her take the money because they knew he was compensating her for what she had lost. It explains why the people around were not scrambling for the money.

The crowd that thronged the Abossey Okai area when the President stormed there has dazed the NPP especially as it is believed the place is their stronghold. It is therefore understandable that the party's activists, including the Acting National Chairman and his boys, would try to put a spin on what happened there in a desperate bid to shore up their flagbearer's tottering campaign.

NPP activists have been sharing the video on social media with glee, leaning on their own misunderstanding and desperately wanting others to believe their concocted story.
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