…As More revelations emerge from NDC’s primaries in the North Tongu Constituency

By Citizen News Desk

Complaints from the five defeated aspirants, Hon. Charles Senama Hodogbey, Mr. Christian Akaho-Tay, Mr. Etse Asem, Mr. Kwame Alorvi and Mr. Elebrue are that Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa bribed the delegates to vote in his favour.

The bribes, they said, were given to the delegates who Mr. Okudzeto and his men had camped at the Volta River Authority (VRA) Club House at Akuse on Saturday January 21, 2012.

They also alleged that Mr. Samuel Okudzeto hired Mallams and police officers to intimidate the delegates who were not willing to vote in his favour at the election grounds at Torgorme.

They said the personalities tasked to share money and gifts were the District Chief Executive (DCE) of North Tongu District, Alhaji Dzanadu Brobbey, the North Tongu NDC constituency chairman, Mr. Michael Kwesi Ladzaglah among others.

This alleged electoral malpractice of Mr. Okudzeto and his men, according to them, did not go down well with them so they quickly alerted the officials of the Electoral Commission and police officers at the grounds but their efforts did not yield any result.

The five defeated aspirants are contemplating holding a press conference in Accra on Friday, 3rd February, 2012 to expose the Deputy Information Minister and his men’s electoral malpractice.

They alleged that Mr. Samuel Okudzeto and his men camped the delegates in the Volta River Authority Club House at Akuse and bribed them with huge sums of money, with some receiving as much as GHC 10,000 (10 million old Ghana cedis).

They noted that “on top of that the delegates received mobile phones and were made to swear to vote only for Mr. Okudzeto for the North Tongu constituency seat”.

“We can inform you on authority that Mr. Okudzeto gave delegates from Volo, Mepe Bottor and Aveyime GHc7,000 each on Friday January 21, 2012 at 9:pm in the evening to vote in his favour,” one of them alleged.

They reiterated their camp’s allegations that delegates were being bribed and induced to vote for Mr. Okudzeto, with the latest claim being that some female delegates at Mepe had been given cloths and MASLOC loans at Battor-Aveyime a few days before the primaries.

The claim of the five defeated aspirants was confirmed by a section of delegates from Mepe, Battor, Togome, Aveyime who spoke to The Citizen Newspaper on condition of anonymity at Torgome JHS park, the venue of the election; they said they were given huge sums of money and Nokia cellular phones at the VRA Club House at Akuse to vote in favour of Mr. Okudzeto.

“Yes, we were give monies and mobile phones. We did not think we should mention names here. The most important thing is that it is very bad because we do not have this in our great NDC party”, the delegates said.

According to them, almost every delegate received monies, adding that they were approached by key members of Okudzeto. The money and mobile phones were given physically through key members of Mr. Okudzeto.

Source: The Citizen Newspaper (+233 27 731 4655) thecitizen.news@ yahoo.com