Had it not been the lineage he has with the Ashanti Kingdom, a region nicknamed the headquarters of the ruling New Patriotic Party [NPP], Bernard Antwi Boasiako widely known as ‘Chairman Wontumi’ would have considered funding former President John Dramani Mahama’s political campaign ahead of the 2016 polls.

In an interview on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana and monitored by Peacefmonline.com, the NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman recalled how Mr Mahama, at a meeting he (Wontumi) had with him in Tamale, wanted to rope him into his ‘camp’ because he [Wontumi] was ‘extremely rich’ and ‘intelligent’.

“He told me that, young man, you are too intelligent I want you to come to NDC to support me [President Mahama]. I will never lie about this, Wontumi will never lie and he [Mahama] knows,” he said.

Adding that “It’s normal to tell a rich businessman to help you fund your campaign. But to me, I see politics as a religion. Where I come from, even if you have money and power and you don’t belong to NPP it’s very dangerous.”

“…So I was bold enough to tell him [Mahama] no, because at that time i had money so I was ballsy.”

Wontumi claims that failure to help Mahama fund his campaign at that time led to the collapse of his multi-million dollar small-scale mining company.