The Campaign Manager for the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Kyeremanteng Boakye Agyarko, has debunked the claims being peddled around that Alan Kyeremateng donated 40 pickup vehicles and $5 million to Nana Akufo-Addo for the 2012 elections.
Groups supporting Mr Keyeramteng’s flagbearership bid, namely “Get Alan Kyerematen Elected (GAKE)” and “Coalition of Students for Alan Kyerematen (COSAK), have in different statements claimed that he fully supported the campaign of Nana Addo.
According to a statement from GAKE and signed by spokesperson, Okatakyie Kwame Opoku Agyeman, “Alan personally donated 40 Pick-ups and money towards the 2012 campaign.”
This has, however, been rebutted sharply by Mr Agyarko, explaining that his reaction to the statement was of the utmost importance in view of the fact that such falsehoods may fester and be transformed into truths if not responded to.
Mr Agyarko explained he was at a loss as to why Mr Kyeremateng had kept quiet for such untruths to be peddled about when he knew fully well that no donation of such sorts had been made to Nana Akufo Addo.
“As Campaign Manager, it is never true that Mr. Kyerematen brought $5 million to the campaign as well as donated 40 pickups. These logistics are things one cannot hide,” Boakye Agyarko stated in an interview.
Boakye Agyarko, therefore, challenged Alan Kyeremateng to come out publicly and tell the whole world who he gave these logistics to.
“If, indeed Alan made these donations, these are things we cannot hide. Mr. Kyeremateng should come out and point out which brand of pickups he donated, be they Tata, Toyota or Nissan pickup vehicles, he should point them out. He should tell as the registration numbers and the chassis numbers of these vehicles, if he indeed donated them, and who he gave these vehicles to,” Boakye added.
Boakye Agyarko explained that he has in his possession the make, registration numbers, chassis numbers and the constituencies each of the pickups used during the 2012 campaign were sent to and he challenged Mr Kyeremateng to come out with the list of pickups he donated.
Nana Addo’s campaign manager further indicated that there was, perhaps, a hidden motive why such falsehoods were being peddled, to create the impression that Alan donated these logistics to Nana Addo.
“Perhaps someone went for money or these pickups from somewhere and is throwing about this false story so as to please the people he went for these items from, to let them know that, indeed, he gave these items to the campaign,” he stated.
This is not the first time Boakye Agyarko has had to react to statements from Mr Alan Kyeremateng.
He has had the occasion to debunk assertions by Alan Kyeremateng that he was ignored and not given a role to play in the NPP campaign of 2012, and in the party’s decision to go to court in the aftermath of the disputed election results.
It is recalled that in the early weeks of April, Mr Kyeremateng, in interviews on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana and Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem Morning Show, stated that he was given no role to play in the 2012 campaign and was also given no tag for him to be present during the presidential election petition at the Supreme Court.
But in an interview with Asempa FM on April 18, Boakye Agyarko described as totally false the claims made by Mr Kyeremateng.
According to Mr Agyarko, in February of 2012, Alan Kyeremateng, Nana Akufo-Addo and himself discussed the various campaign roles to be played by key actors in the party, especially Mr Kyeremateng.
He revealed that a plan was put in place to give free rein to four persons within the party to campaign in regions of their choosing. These persons, according to Boakye Agyarko, included former President John Agyekum Kufuor, the late Alhaji Aiu Mahama, Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
Any other person wishing to campaign was, therefore, to be given a defined role to play, so as to ensure that there was no crowding of persons around the four in the campaign period.
This, according to Boakye Agyarko, was agreed to by Alan Kyeremateng. The former Trade Minister thereafter asked Boakye Agyarko to permit him to complete his work in Addis Ababa where he had been appointed as a trade advisor at the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa. Alan, according to Boakye Agyarko, indicated that he was going to complete the job in April 2012.
“I never heard from Alan again. When you call him, he doesn’t answer his phone. He did not show up in April to help with the campaign as he promised. So what shows that we didn’t want him to be a part of the campaign?” Boakye Agyarko asked.
He continued, “What role did Alan want to play for which he was prevented? He should come out to boldly state which individual or individuals in the NPP stopped him from playing a role in the campaign.”
On the decision by the party to go to court and Mr Kyeremateng’s “no show” during the proceedings, Boakye Agyarko stated that the NPP was given a total of 25 tags. NPP Members of Parliament were given 5 tags, and thus, according to Boakye Agyarko, NPP MPs were involved in a rotation system, with MPs alternating in their presence at the Supreme Court.
“As campaign manager, I never got a tag. I was only able to get into the Supreme Court on Thursdays because someone, who had a tag, told me he wouldn’t be present in court on Thursdays. This was why I was only seen in court on Thursdays,” he explained.
“So Alan Kyerematen, who was not in the country at the time, expected to have a tag reserved for him so that whenever he came to Ghana, that tag would be available for him?” He asked.
There was no deliberate intention, according to Boakye Agyarko, not to give Alan Kyerematen a tag.
