Alberta Afia Akoto, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary hopeful for the Okaikwei North constituency in the Greater Accra Region, has landed in hot waters after it has been uncovered that she allegedly faked her divorce to NDC’s Chief Biney to win Saturday’s parliamentary primaries.
Afia Akoto, a former deputy chief executive of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), on Wednesday 29 November, 2023 told NPP supporters that her marriage with former NDC deputy organiser Chief Biney is still being used against her despite collapse of the union.
“My opponents are saying I am a mole and a traitor because I am married to an NDC person. They don’t have any message for the delegates. We have divorced, so I don’t understand why they want to use it against me. I am NPP true and true,” Afia Akoto told her supporters at the Anarhuma electoral area.
Afia Akoto married Chief Biney in February 2020, a marriage that dominated media headlines. It is believed that President Nana Akufo-Addo allegedly sacked her as second in command at MASLOC as a result of her marriage with an opposition member.
However, close associates say that Afia Akoto might be using her purported divorce as a political strategy to sway voters ahead of the Saturday, 2nd December 2023 parliamentary primaries in orphan constituency including Okaikwei North, where she is contesting.
“That’s not true. They are still together. Take it from me. They never divorced,” a close associate of Afia Akoto said in a leaked phone conversation. “Chief Biney is currently in London now until the primaries is over.”
“She is telling people that she is divorced and that is a political strategy to change the minds of the NPP people who see her as a traitor. I can tell you in confidence that she’s still married to Chief Biney and Afia has currently moved to her father’s house at Achimota just to let it look like she’s left her matrimonial home,” the top NPP insider and a friend of Afia Akoto said.
Afia Akoto has declined response to the source’s claim.
Afia Akoto is facing stiff competition from the deputy trades minister Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, former MP Fuseini Issah, managing editor for the Daily Searchlight newspaper Kenneth Agyei Kuranchie and Kofi Nyarko.
She is making a lot of inroads on the ground after securing over 250 MASLOC loans for her women delegates and over 60 scholarships for party supporters from the Scholarship secretariat.
Theresa Lardi Awuni of the NDC is currently the MP for the area after defeating Fuseini Issah in the 2020 elections.