DR. SAMUEL Sarpong, a former Regional Minister for Ashanti and Central Regions, has denied putting up names in the report the NDC compiled after election 2020 as having been compromised with money and thus denying the party the chance to garner the 1million votes it targeted in Ashanti.

The confidential but now leaked report looked at reasons why the party did not gain ground in every aspect of the elections in Ashanti including parliamentary elections even though the party did over 600, 000 votes as compared to 400, 000 popular votes it gained in the 2016 polls.

A group calling itself Eagle Eye, claiming links to the NDC on Monday accused leaders of the Party in Ashanti as having been influenced monetary wise by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the 2020 election especially during the collation of results.

Speaking to Kojo Marfo, morning show host at Abusua FM, Dr Sarpong, Chairperson for the Investigative Committee of the Ashanti NDC, stated that, ”nowhere does the report state that persons were bribed or compromised with money”.

Details:

Dr Sarpong further noted that 17 persons who came before the committee could not put any evidence forward to suggest that money changed hands.

He stressed that the reason for the investigation was purposely to unravel what may have occasioned low votes the NDC got from the 2020 polls in Ashanti.

Dr Sarpong, a former Security Capo and Manager of the State Housing Company Limited (SHCL) described as outrageous the claims that the committee was set up primarily to investigate bribery allegations.

‘’Kojo, the Council of Elders of the NDC in Ashanti as a responsible body of the party commissioned a committee to investigate the performance of the party in the 2020 polls and as part of the investigations we called persons who had made allegations to knowing why the party failed to get votes we expected to appear before it and nowhere were evidence adduced to suggest leaders of the party were bought with money to influence outcomes against us’’, Dr Sarpong intimated.

Council Of Elders Chairman:

Speaking earlier to Kojo Marfo on the supposed leakage of the confidential report, Ambassador Daniel Ohene Agyekum, Chairman of the NDC Council of Elders expressed surprise at the attitude of the committee member who gave the report to unknown persons in the party.

He, however, rejected the claim by the Eagle Eye group that leaders in the Ashanti NDC compromised the party’s electoral fortunes by going for money.

Hon Ohene Agyekum said no one was able to prove or provide evidence to incriminate the Regional Chairman to the least of the executives in the Region.

‘’Kojo Marfo, our party lost the plot because there was no proper coordination of activities before the election and during the same and hence our bad performance’’, the Chairman of the Council elders stressed.

By Michael Ofosu-Afriyie 

Kumasi