Frederick Worsemao Armah Blay, a former Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has said he did not promise to purchase ambulances for the party in each constituency as being propagated.
Rather, he says he only shared what he was going to do help the party become independent from the central government in meeting its financial obligations.
He explains that the ambulance message was to help the party venture into a business by securing loans from the bank to purchase the vehicles and turn them into ambulances to fetch money for them.
His comments was in response to the growing votes-buying that has characterised Ghana’s political space, explaining that his message at the time could not be classified as one.
He told TV3’s Keminni Amanor on Hot Issues Sunday, January 14, 2024, that vote-buying is something the NPP abhors which it is working assiduously to curtail, the reason he couldn’t have used the ambulance as a conduit to woo delegates for votes.
“I did not promise that, unfortunately. I did not promise that I’m giving just like that. I’m saying we want the parties to be independent. We want my party to engage in businesses that will make our party, instead of depending on central government, will be independent. And therefore, we go to the bank –for the banks were ready –so we buy buses so the buses will be managed and handled by the constituencies.
“It’s not vote-buying. When you are going for elections, you want to tell the people what you are capable of doing to help the party. Not that individuals, “I want to give you money”. I said we want the party to be independent and I don’t want us to depend on central government or money bags who would dictate policies and extort some monies from us when we come to power so let’s be independent,” he explained.
The Board Chair of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation speaking on corruption on the same programme indicated that the canker is pervasive in the country just like many other places across the globe, the current administration is doing its best in tackling it with the right policies.
“The government of Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, so far as I am concerned, has put in more efforts under the third and fourth republic, to fight corruption than any other government that I can think of. I am being sincere. How do you fight corruption? It’s not vowing to be a saint as an individual and therefore let people follow your examples,” he said.
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