Mahama is funding my party – Odike reveals

Questions over the real faces bankrolling the founder of the United People’s Party (UPP), Mr. Akwasi Addae Odike, has finally been put to rest after the Kumasi-based Business tycoon confessed that he receives his source of funding from the President, his Excellency John Dramani Mahama and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The founder of the UPP has been heard on tape loudly bragging about the support he enjoys from the President and the ruling NDC, as he seeks to do their bidding, ahead of the 2016 general elections.

In a 10-minute conversation with a defector of his party, Gideon, Mr. Odike openly declared that he has received assurances from the President and the NDC that he would receive massive funding and that other lesser political parties with similar agenda cannot compare themselves to him.

There have been allegations in the past that Mr. Odike was being bankrolled by the NDC and President Mahama, but the Kumasi-based businessman had always been quick to douse the allegations, claiming he was a man of his own.

However, a conversation captured on a tape between him and one Gideon, who was said to be a member of the UPP but also defected, appears to have given him and his conspirators up.

The UPP founder, on the tape, also issued a word of caution to his former General Secretary, Razak Kojo Opoku, who defected to the newly formed APC party by former presidential candidate of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Hassan Ayariga, threatening to deal drastically with him for spreading false rumours about the UPP.

There were recent reports of moves by some leading members of the UPP to remove Mr. Odike as the flagbearer for the party, a situation which Mr. Odike is fiercely resisting.

Mr. Odike complained bitterly that he has been receiving calls from the General Secretary of the ruling NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who is worried about the turn of events as far as the UPP is concerned.

The Kumasi-based business magnate's conversation also appeared to compromise the Electoral Commission (EC), asserting that the electoral body has been updating him on all the machinations by some individuals to sabotage him and the NDC agenda to use him as a decoy in the run-up to the elections.