NPP Chairmen GHC 27.5m bribery deal …Dagoma calls Ken Agyapong’s bluff in Sagnarigu showdown

New Patriotic Party (NPP) 2024 flag-bearer hopeful, Kennedy Agyapong, was a lead character in an unpresidential chaotic drama of wild accusations and counter accusations which played out when he met his party’s delegates at the Sagnarigu Constituency in the Northern Region last Friday, October 20.

Mr. Agyapong, during his address to the Sagnarigu delegates, repeated his hallmark allegations that during the Party’s recent Super Delegates’ Conference, Constituency Chairmen were given monetary inducements of a GHC100, 000 each to influence their voting pattern.

Paying GHC100, 000 to each of the 275 NPP Constituency Chairmen across the country would amount to a sum of a cool GHC27, 500,000 just as bribe to one category of delegates.

The Friday incident was not the first time Kennedy Agyapong was alleging without evidence that the party’s Chairmen were bribed with cash and other incentives including cars.

However, last Friday’s allegation did not go down well with the Constituency Chairman of Sagnarigu, Alhaji Musah Fuseini mostly called ‘Dagoma’, who raised a protest, asked to be given the microphone and when it was given him, challenged Mr. Agyapong to back his allegation with any significant prove of evidential value.

Chairman Dagoma was blunt, bold and did not mince words: “The man (Kennedy Agyapong) is telling lies. He is lying. I am the Chairman of the Constituency. I voted in the Super Delegates Conference and nobody gave me GHC 100,000 to vote. I will not accept such lies from somebody who wants to lead this Party.”

Hell broke loose. Chaos enveloped the meeting. There was an outburst of voices yelling at no one in particular. Some were seen punching their clenched fists skywards. Others were seen wagging their forefingers to the left and to the right in people’s faces. Kennedy Agyapong was in the center of the drama, shouting a response into the microphone in the midst of the melee though the turmoil drowned his voice. It was a nasty scene.

The evidence Dagoma requested was not provided and his denial that he, as a Constituency Chairman, was given a GHC100, 000 bribe was also not challenged.

When the noise eventually died down, the delegates were split in opinion. While some applauded Chairman Dagoma for having the courage to publicly confront Kennedy Agyapong in search of evidence and to disassociate himself from the list of Chairmen who allegedly took the bribe, others disagreed with his approach on the basis that it was not his turn to speak and his interruption was more disruptive than productive.

The meeting was brought to an end not long after the confrontation which was captured on a video recording that has since gone viral.

Mr. Agyapong, during the tour, granted an interview to Tamale Radio during which he expressed other misgivings:

“The Party has very, very been unfair to me. I have meant not to respond. I am only giving an example. Of late, the Second Lady is in the Ashanti Region, all the things she has said about me, the Party has not heard anything…They are saying she has not mentioned my name. That’s what they are saying, so can I also go there and say what I know without mentioning names?  That one, they would know who Kennedy Agyapong is referring to. That is unfairness.

“But I have decided not to respond. I am only drawing your attention to that all these things are going on, I do not say anything.  I leave it to their fate”, Ken Agyapong noted.