Deputy Minister for Information, Pius Enam Hadzide has stated that the supposed bribe video purporting to suggest that the then-candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took a bribe is baseless.
To him, the largest opposition party is only interested in propagating false news rather than outlining their policies to Ghanaians ahead of the December 7 polls.
“They don’t have any message now; their messenger and message are not credible and they know. The agenda now is to tarnish the image of the President with false allegations,” he said in an interview with NEAT FM’s morning show ‘Ghana Montie’.
“President Nana Addo will never take bribe and he has track records to back that. That is the difference between the President and John Mahama who is known for corruption,” he added.
A civil society advocate I respect very much sent me a video of the alleged Akufo-Addo bribe this morning, and said it wasn’t possible the encounter happened in 2016. After some back and forth, I was compelled to watch the video.
It was the one with a voice narration, but I raelised there was something else strange about this video. In this video, the one who led the Hajia to meet Nana Akufo-Addo is heard begging on behalf of one Alhaji Abass. I felt this was strange because in the first unedited video that I watched, that was not part of the conversation. The discussion about party people wanting Alhaji out did not feature at all. So I went to the Facebook pages of those who first shared the 15 minute unedited video without the voice over or narration.
I realised that they had pulled down the original videos and uploaded this new one which had the voice over and what appears like an insertion of the speaker’s voice to match the narration that the money was sent as a bribe in 2017 to ensure that Alhaji Abass was kept in office.
The issue about campaign T-shirts have also been edited out of this new one. You will also realise that in the first one, an amount of 40,000 was mentioned, but there was no denomination. But in the second video being circulated, there it is stated.
I searched YouTube and realised that someone still had the earlier one, and it confirms the information I heard on the original video shared before being pulled down. (Watch this video and compare it to the other one being shared now and you’ll spot the differences.)
The conversation in the new one flows more naturally. For instance, when Barffour Awuah heard about the T-Shirts, he interjected and said he was going to Kumasi the following day and that he had to send the T-Shirts to support the (NPP) candidate in Asawase who badly needed support in his campaign. Nana Akufo-Addo readily agreed that he should send them to him. We should be asking the originators of the video why they pulled down the original ones they shared on November 30.
And we should be concerned because someone can record you in a discussion on one topic and go and edit out the original words they spoke to you and add new ones to create a different scenario. I do investigative journalism and I sometimes employ undercover techniques. My opinion on this is purely professional. I don’t know of any journalist who has been more outspoken about the president’s handling of corruption than I have.
But if he’s treated unfairly, I am obliged to point it out.
In 2016, I was one of the few who openly defended President Mahama when his voice was doctored in Kumasi in the “hen and hawk dance analogy” by a journalist to create the impression he was insulting the Asante people. It is a matter of principle and from a professional standpoint. In any form of undercover, the offence you intend to link the target of your investigation with should be the subject of discussion in the undercover recording. If you record your pregnant girlfriend as having taken money from you to abort a pregnancy and the conversation in the video is about taking the money for shopping, we have to point it out to you. There can be problems with the shopping and we should discuss that separately, but you don’t accuse her of taking money to terminate the pregnancy when that never came up when you met to do the secret recording.
In this case, I agree with those who question the mode of funding political party campaigns. I agree that there should have been proper structures where the presidential candidate does not have to be directly involved. I agree with those who question the motive of the giver. I don’t have any problem when Akufo-Addo is scrutinised for how he handled this and other donations. But it’s wrong to doctor the conversation of a meeting in order to destroy another person. It can happen to anyone. And you don’t have to belong to Akufo-Addo’s party or be his supporter to point this out. Just note that there are two separate tapes on this matter.
Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, has exposed the individual behind the tape recording of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo receiving a sum of money from Ghana’s Ambassador to USA, Baffour Adjei Bawuah.
The incident happened at the private residence of President Nana Akufo-Addo.
The Salis Newspaper published a story under the headline “Caught Pants Down! President Akufo-Addo Taking Bribe” reporting that the President was bribed by Mr. Adjei Bawuah who was acting on behalf of the Director of Urban Roads, Alhaji Abass.
”It has been revealed that NANA AKUFO-ADDO is not the ANGEL Ghanaians perceived him to be but one, who is fully entangled in CORRUPTION and only fights corruption with words. Undercover investigations conducted by The Salis Newspaper has exposed sitting President Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) taking a bribe in a BROWN ENVELOPE in an undercover video. The money was handed over to Ambassador Baffour Adjei Bawuah…The US $40000 Dollar Bribe was paid to the President in 2017 after the NPP won the 2016 Elections at Nana Akufo-Addo’s private residence in Nima, Accra. The giver of the BRIBE is the current Director of URBAN ROADS, Alhaji Dr. Abass”, the newspaper read.
The story has so far dominated political discussions with political opponents of the President using it against his campaign to be re-elected into office.
But Kweku Baako has shot down the story while discussing it on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” on Wednesday, December 2, 2020.
Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi, Kweku Baako asserted that the story is untrue.
He disclosed the person who recorded the President is called Salis Yakubu and is the owner of the Salis newspaper.
He noted that the story has been skewed to look like the money presentation was made recently, but actually it was done in 2016 prior to the general elections when President Nana Akufo-Addo was then a candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He stressed that the money which was given to the President was Ghc 40000 but not 40000 dollars as published in the Salis newspaper and added the cash was to assist the Akufo-Addo victory campaign in 2016.
Mr. Baako exposed the true character of Salis Yakubu
He noted that Salis secretly recorded the incident and gave a wrong account in the voice-over he made on the video so as to tarnish the image of President Akufo-Addo.
Kweku Baako further disclosed he knows Salis Yakubu very well and that he once introduced him to investigative Journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, but Anas sacked him after few months of working with him.
Mr. Baako also revealed that he is the same guy who lied about him during an undercover report by Anas Aremeyaw Anas titled ”Who watches the watchman” by saying he (Baako) had secretly recorded the President.
“Look, this is a guy that I influenced his entry into Tiger Eye,” he said but he regrets introducing him to Anas because any person who knows Salis’ true colors would never believe what he says or does, and particularly not believe the bribery allegation against the President because he lacks credibility.
“He is a political prostitute and a mercenary of the highest order. I regret myself. I led him to see Anas and became part of Tiger Eye, and in four/five months, Anas dismissed him. This is 2016 and then he set up his own group,” he stated.
Mr. Baako also revealed that Salis has been collecting videos to blackmail his victims, so advised the NPP not to pay attention to him.
“As I speak to you, I know he’s exited to Benin. I’m telling you. You know our borders are closed but they’re porous. You understand me. The borders are closed but they’re porous and so there are entry points that you can’t find an immigration person there and if you’re determined to exit, you’ll exit . . . He does these things and he sells them. He got into the NPP party; he got into it.
“This boy did the recording. Unfortunately for him, we have the original . . . So, when he decided to do the fake one in order to blackmail and collect money, and he collected monies from some people who didn’t know that the thing is fake . . . He lied and he’s still lying. He is in Benin. By now, he’s anticipating that I will come here and say something. He should stay there forever . . . Let me tell you that that tape by the boy is fake.”
”The sad part is that a fine public servant like Alhaji Abass, you bring him to the front burner relative to propaganda of nuisance value. It’s unfair to him. He doesn’t deserve that . . . ”
He called on Alhaji Abass to file a law suit against Salis Yakubu and his team.
“I would pray to God that this case should go to court. Look, the court doesn’t interrogate rumors, gossips and so forth. They have no room there and you’ll be so embarrased . . . I hope what I’ve heard is true that he’s getting his lawyers to take steps to deal with this matter.”
