Prez. Mahama shares cash for votes [Inside story]

• Posted on September 22, 2016September 22, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

President John Mahama, in his inordinate ambition for re-election in the December general election – which is a little over 70 days away – has been spotted sharing some money on his campaign trail.

The most recent is a video footage that has surfaced on social media in which the president is seen standing in his open-top V8 Toyota Landcruiser and doling out cash to people in the street during a campaign tour of the Greater Accra Region.

The video, which has since gone viral and captured on several websites, was obviously shot by an amateur photographer who was reportedly observing proceedings from the balcony of a storey building.

In that video, the presidential convoy is seen moving at a snail pace on the streets of Sabon Zongo at Abossey Okai with President Mahama spotting a white cap on top of a black coloured T-shirt and responding to cheers from admirers.

As the crowd cheered him on, he beckoned someone from the crowd to come and ordered his driver to stop.

He is then seen reaching out for money from the vehicle and giving it out to the person, who meandered his way through the crowd amidst tight security to take the money.

As the vehicle began to move, the president beckoned a few others to come and he reached out for more cash from the car for them.

He repeated the gesture a number of times as the crowd surged forward to grab his hand obviously for some cash.

Since the beginning of this year’s electioneering campaign, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has shared a lot of goodies and freebies.

The media have captured the sharing of gas cylinders, roofing sheets, outboard motors, fish pans, pieces of cloth, sewing machines, motorbikes, bicycles, mobile phones, laptops, as well as cash, apparently to entice the electorate to vote for the party.

The party is also on record as sharing V8 vehicles to some chiefs as part of the inducement scheme while the masses wallow in abject poverty.

Sometime last week, another set of pictures surfaced from the NDC’s manifesto launch in Sunyani, the Brong-Ahafo Regional capital, where President Mahama was seen giving money to a certain Zongo chief in public.

The pictures have since gone viral and political pundits have expressed concern about the way in which the president has been doling out cash to people in public.

On the sidelines of the manifesto launch, agents and executives of the NDC were also seen sharing money in the open.

The monies were being shared to people bused from various parts of the country to Sunyani to shore up support for President Mahama and the NDC.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu