Chief of Staff Julius Debrah’s campaign tactics of wooing voters in the North to vote for John Mahama because the latter hails from the region makes it mandatory for him to vote for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who hails from the same region as Mr Debrah, the vice-presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has said.

Mr Debrah, at the launch of Majority Leader Alban Bagbin’s campaign in the Nadowli-Kaleo constituency in the Upper West Region on Saturday, 24 September, appealed to northerners not to disappoint their “own brother” in the December 7 polls.

“Now it’s the turn of President John Dramani Mahama, who is from the north, and we are being told that we should let him stay only four years so that we can bring somebody. I don’t think this is fair,” Mr Debrah told the crowd of supporters, adding: “And, so, I’m using this occasion to urge you all to vote massively for your own brother.

“The last time we had a president from the northern part of this country is 35 years ago, and, so, if we are not lucky and this opportunity slips by, who knows, we are going to wait for another 35 years.”

But Dr Bawumia has said that if Mr Debrah was to go by his analogy, then he must also vote for Nana Akufo-Addo.

He said: “Over the weekend, we heard the Chief of Staff in the North saying that John Mahama is from the North so people from the North should vote for him; ironically, the Chief of Staff is from the Eastern Region, so why is he not voting for Nana Akufo-Addo? The Chief of Staff thinks he can deceive us.

“The people of the North do not need the Chief of Staff to remind them that Mahama is their brother; the people of the North are witnesses to the corruption and incompetence. What happened to the SADA money? The people of the North remember how John Mahama allowed money meant for their development to be stolen by his people,” the economist told the people of Diaso in the Upper West Denkyira constituency of the Central Region.