The Minority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu says the content of a leaked tape circulating with his voice castigating the 2012 campaign strategy of the two-time flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo has been doctored.
According to him, although he stands by some of the issues discussed on the tape, several portions of the conversation have been tampered to cast a bad image of him.
The Suame MP was heard on the leaked tape bemoaning the financial wastefulness of the party’s 2012 campaign.
“…Akufo-Addo sleeps in a private residence anytime he visits Kumasi. Apart from some people who cook for him, most of the rest follow him because of other interests when it comes to the Ashanti Region. His coterie of followers who go to sleep at the Golden Tulip Hotel; You know how much they were spending? The cost to be paid by the campaign team was $90,000. If we had given to some two constituencies, they would have won for us. Such a leader? We will not allow you do that because in my view now we don’t have money for campaign.”
“Then somebody goes to import bicycles, motor bicycles and vuvuzelas. What are we using vuvuzelas for? Do you know how much vuvuzelas cost? Some people take advantage to import vuvuzelas! The vuvuzelas alone cost $1.5 million,” the minority leader was heard saying on the tape.
However, speaking on the Starr Midday News, Mensah-Bonsu said the content on the tape do not reflect the entire discussions.
“Unfortunately, whoever put out the remarks left out the qualifiers tendentiously because they were conditional statements. It was a caucus meeting in my office on the need to restructure our campaigns.
“I never said that Nana Addo slept at Golden Tulip Hotel when he went to Kumasi. I said that while Nana slept in a private facility in Kumasi, other members of his team preferred sleeping elsewhere and incurring avoidable cost to the party,” he explained.
