Alhaji Abass Awolu, the man at the centre of the $40,000 bribery scandal has instructed his lawyers to take legal action against anyone or group that has accused him of paying bribes to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, veteran journalist Kweku Baako has disclosed.
Baako says he has been informed that the Executive Director of Urban Roads who has been identified as the man who allegedly gave President Akufo-Addo a $40,000 bribe in the leaked video has told his lawyers to act on the matter.
Speaking on Peace FM’s Krokokoo’s program, Kweku Baako urged him to go to court and clear his name.
Baako has described the allegations as desperate attempts by the NDC to woo voters with just a few days left for the elections.
"It is only political desperados will do this at the eleventh hour, but unfortunately for them, they fire blank bullets that would have no effects,” Baako said.
Baako said the NDC and peddlers of the story are not being fair to Alhaji Abass Awolu.
“The sad part is that a fine public servant like Alhaji Abass has been brought to the front burner relative to propaganda of nuisance value. It’s unfair to him and I hope that what I’m hearing is true. I understand he has told his lawyers to take steps to deal with this issue. If he doesn’t do it, I will go and look for him and get him to do it.”
Meanwhile, the ruling New Patriotic Party has threatened to sue any media house that televises the leaked video.
The Deputy Campaign Manager of the NPP, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said it is defamatory for any media house to publish the video.
“It’s all over social media. Yesterday, they even dared to show it on a television station. We are coming after that television station. It is defamatory on the President of Ghana. It is unethical and unprofessional. You take old videos of campaign donations and distort it, seeking to make it look like a recent video, come on. Is the NDC too incompetent to fake a video correctly? You want to run a nation and can’t even fake things.”
“Listen to the narrative they attached to the video that the president took a bribe of $40,000. This in 2016 was equivalent to GHS 168,000. Really? And they think that people will believe? Let’s even escalate it to $40,000 at the current rate, that will give [us] GHS 230,000. It cannot even buy the engine of the Ford expedition that candidate Mahama took,” he added.
