Kofi Tonto, an aide to the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, had a torrid time proving an allegation he made against former president John Dramani Mahama on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana program.

During a discussion of the imposition of taxes by the Akufo-Addo government, Kofi Tonto sought to equalize by referencing how the erstwhile Mahama government did the same at the height of the economic challenges in 2015.

Kofi Tonto claimed that unlike the current government, which is sensitive to the plight of Ghanaians, the NDC administration did not exhibit any form of sympathy for the suffering Ghanaian public who protested the imposition of taxes.

To rub it in, Kofi Tonto said that when Ghanaians registered their opposition to the new taxes, then-president John Mahama ignored them and rather insulted the public.

According to him, Mahama instead ordered Ghanaians who owned private vehicles to ditch them for public transport, a statement he considers to be an insult to Ghanaians.

This claim of his was, however, challenged by the host of the show, Dr. Randy Abbey, who asked him to prove it with a quote of the supposed insult.

“Governments have placed levies on petroleum products across the board. President Mahama did it, and when people called on him that we are going through hardship, why are you putting taxes on petroleum products, he said go and sit in trotro.”

Doubting the supposed statement of John Mahama, Randy Abbey quipped, “He said that?”

Kofi Tonto picked his phone and attempted to read what he said were online stories that captured the said statement of John Mahama.

However, Kofi Tonto could only read stories from multiple websites that, in the view of Dr. Randy Abbey, did not exactly capture the statement he attributed to John Mahama.

“You have not shown me where he said that go and take trotro,” Dr. Abbey said after Tonto read a couple of stories from different news portals.

Kofi Tonto then read further stories and quoted John Mahama’s statements from those news portals, but the quotes, in the view of Dr. Randy Abbey, did not capture the allegation he made against John Mahama.

“You are now doing an interpretation. I want to listen to the full quote of John Mahama asking Ghanaians to sit in trotro if they cannot afford the new fuel prices,” Dr Randy Abbey said.

TWI NEWS

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