The Director-General of the National Lotteries Authority (NLA), Sammi Awuku, has rejected news publications that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was overwhelmingly booed by the crowd at the 2022 Anlo Hogbetsotso.
According to him, Dr. Bawumia was warmly received by the crowd at the festival and was only jeered at by about 30 out of the over 2000 people who were present.
"The vice president arrived at Angloga to a rousing welcome; this is not hearsay (I was there). The people at the park were more than 2000… as the vice president was mentioning the achievement of the government, you could hear people cheering him.
"If you get the full video, you would see the people cheering as he was listing the achievement, then a group of people standing at the corner of the grounds started rushing to the centre just behind the media. So, whereas you have one group of people, about 500 or so, to the right cheering on the president, these thirty people started chanting 'away'. They formed an insignificant portion of the 2000 people who had gathered," he said in Twi.
He reiterated that the vice president and team from the government were generally received well by the people of Anloga despite the fact that the area was a stronghold of the opposition National Democratic Congress.
He added that the vice president was right to talk about the government's achievements at the festival because he is the head of Ghana's Economic Management team, and he has to let the people know what the government is doing to alleviate the hardships they are currently facing.
Meanwhile, a member of the Hogbetsotso Planning Committee, Agbotadua Kumasah, has explained that the booing of the vice president started after he started talking about the economy.
He said that Dr. Mahamudu actually began his address by reiterating the need for unity among the Asantes and the Anlo State.
"When he arrived, there was general calmness on the whole assembly ground. When the Asantehene spoke, people applauded him; when the Kwahuhene also spoke, people applauded him.
"And then when he started speaking, he spoke drawing attention to what the Asantehene said about unity between the Asantes and the Anlo State that people are enjoying and then they were clapping for him," he said in an interview with JoyNews and monitored by GhanaWeb.
"When he entered the economic situation, that is when the problem started. He mentioned among others that they built more airports than any other government, they built more roads than any other government and the people who were there did not see the roads, the airports, the roads he was referring to.
"So, that brought some agitation and it became very difficult to control the people because what he was saying, none of them happened in the area," he added.
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