The New Patriotic Party has rubbished several allegations made by a former sports minister, Mallam Ali Yusif Issah, against the party and some of its leading members including Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and former President John Agyekum Kufuor.

Mallam Issah who appeared on 3FM’s Sunrise morning show Wednesday claimed the NPP had no resources prior to the 2000 elections to prosecute its campaign and that he was the one who secured funds for the party.

According to him, monies were channelled through the formation of Sahara Oil for the NPP to be able to prosecute its campaign that eventually led to the winning of the 2000 elections.

He also among other things claimed Nana Akufo-Addo showed gross disrespect for President John Agyekum Kufuor by prosecuting him in 2001 despite an intervention by the former president.

But responding to the allegations, Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Obiri Boahene, asked Ghanaians to disregard statements by the former sports minister who defected to the National Democratic Congress upon his release from jail.
He questioned the moral character of Mallam Issah saying, “Remember we are dealing with a character who has been convicted before for stealing so you need to tread cautiously,” Nana Obiri told 3FM.

He said nowhere did the NPP ask Mallam Issah to solicit for funds, and that he may have gone out of his way to solicit funds for his personal use and not for the NPP as he claims.

“The truth of the matter is that the NPP never asked Mallam Issah to go and solicit funds for the party…Mallam Issah is not a member of the New Patriotic Party because he is with the NDC and therefore for goodness sake he should allow the NPP to concentrate on important things” he said.

Mallam Issah, was handed a four-year jail term in 2001 for causing financial loss to the State regarding the missing $46,000 bonuses for the Black Stars.

He was in 2003 granted a presidential pardon on grounds of ill-health.