NPP MP pledges to buy delegates to retain his seat

A sitting MP from the New Patriotic Party, NPP, has vowed to do everything including paying delegates to vote for him in the upcoming elections. The lawmaker who has served in the Akufo-Addo government said he will not let his competitors beat him with money.

Boasting of his intentions, Alfred Obeng-Boateng, the MP for Bibiani Anhwiaso said he has the money in dollars and is ready to pay double of what his contenders will pay to the delegates. He added that he secured that money a long time ago and won’t touch it under any circumstance.

“I am telling you that the money I will use for the primaries is in dollars and that money has been secured long ago, I must be frank with you. That is money I am not touching under any circumstance.

“So I laugh seeing all that they are doing, I have dollars there for that primaries. What I can tell my delegates is that I will pay more than double what anyone who will contest me will offer them, they should take that from me. If they come together and decide to pay GHC10,000 per delegate I will pay more than that.”

“Whatever they pay, even if they pay GHC20,000 I will pay more than GHC20,000 because I know how much I have put there; I know how much I have reserved. That is why I saved in dollars so that the money will not lose value,” the former BOST CEO said.

Mr Obeng-Boateng who is also the vice Chairperson of the Government Assurance Committee of Parliament justified his comments. The NPP MP said he was responding to threats by a competitor and also he didn’t state that he is keeping dollars at home, adding that even if he kept dollars at home, it is no crime to do so as the money belongs to him.

“If I say I have kept my monies in dollars, that does not mean I have kept them in the house. It only means that part of my money is in dollars and I have exchanged same and it could be at the bank or it could also be in my room and there is no offence or criminality in that. There is nothing wrong with that. I decide where I want to keep my money.

“If I also said that in the upcoming primaries, whatever my competitors will, I will offer more than them, they should know that I was responding to a threat from someone saying that he was going to pay money, who was he going to pay to and for what reason. So that is why I said I will pay more than them because if someone threatens, I have to be able to threaten the person back,” he told Joy News in a pre-recorded video.

The NPP is not due to hold parliamentary primaries until February 2024 but will begin accepting nominations later this year. Primaries to elect a presidential candidate will be held on November 4, 2023.