Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Daniel Bugri Naabu, says he finds it very difficult to believe why President John Dramani Mahama will now need his assistance to retain power, having abandoned him for many years.
According to him, he, together with the President and his brothers, were very close and had always been together as one family until when Mr. Mahama became the Vice-President and subsequently, President of the land, when things changed.
Speaking to some party supporters and sympathizers in Accra over his bribery allegation, Bugri Naabu said he questioned the President when the duo met why he was seeking his assistance to retain power having neglected him for some time now.
“I asked him that day. He said I have run left him and I told him that you left me because all of you including your brothers we were all together. When you came to power, I can’t even come to you and talk to you. It is a problem. Today that you are failing you are asking me to come … I won’t come,” he said much to the applause of the party supporters.
He added “If John Mahama wanted to give me money; he would have given me money since he became Vice-President and President. Is it today that he knows I need money? Is it today?”
On Tuesday, November 29, 2016, the NPP at a press conference addressed by Spokesperson for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Mustapha Hamid, cited President John Dramani Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim Mahama, for attempting to compromise Bugri Naabu, to create division in the elephant family.
According to the party, the deal between Mr. Mahama and their party Chair was for the latter to come out and disown the presidential candidate of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition for hating people who hail from the three regions up north.
The amount in the deal is a mouth-watering GHȼ3.3million in addition to a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport Utility Vehicle.
To buttress their claim, the supposed SUV with registration number GS 687 – 16 was brought to the party’s headquarters while the press conference was ongoing.
The vehicle was one out of three promised him by President John Dramani Mahama and his brother with the remaining two being a brand new V8 Toyota Land Cruiser and brand new Nissan Pick-up.
Included in the package is also a road contract worth GHȼ190million.
But Koku Anyidoho commenting on the issue in an interview with Kasapa FM’s Akwasi Nsiah rubbished the claims of the NPP and called for the immediate arrest of Bugri Naabu since he has admitted taking a bribe from somebody.
“It is a disgrace for Mustapha Hamid. Bugri Naabu is not dead. He is alive and therefore must come out to make his own case. I believe it is one of those machinations the NPP is perpetrating just like they did with the Election Petition Case. If it is Mustapha Hamid that is speaking for Bugri Naabu doesn’t it means that he has sold his senior brother who has not brought out any evidence to prove his case?”
“In our law, if somebody attempts to bribe you and you receive it, it is criminal. So, is Hamid now telling us that Bugri Naabu is a criminal for accepting some bribe from somebody? Because at the end of the day those you are claiming to have given out the bribe have not come out to confirm that yes the bribery allegation is true. You don’t have any evidence to prove that but rather you Hamid admitting that Bugri Naabu has accepted a bribe. I will urge the Police CID to immediately go and arrest Bugri Naabu for accepting a bribe,” he noted.
But the NPP Northern Regional Chair in a sharp rebuttal said if he needed money, he would have pocketed the GH₵500,000.00 allegedly given him as bribe by the President and his brother, Ibrahim Mahama.
“I don’t need bribe. If I need bribe, I would have pocketed the money they gave me and the cars and the promise of the other money which is supposed to come. I don’t need it. I believe that Nana Addo is the only person who can build Ghana and can bring vision to Ghana and for that matter I will never and can never take bribe.”
“What is GH₵500,000? What is a car? Me, when I started buying cars, expensive ones, I don’t think John Mahama was a student. He himself said. He was a student at Ghana National College (GHANASCO). How can I go … he himself told me that I was having some cars, Motorola and other things the day they were presenting the GH₵500,000.00 to me and a car. So what is he talking about? I don’t care … I don’t need anybody to give me money,” he said.
