Former Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, who is also a former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ejisu seat, has revealed that he paid GHC5,000 to each of the 600 New Patriotic Party delegates during the 2020 parliamentary primary, but was rejected.
Despite his defeat as a result of the massive non-refundable bribe given to delegates to sway their votes in his favor, Kwabena Owusu Aduomi finds solace in the fact that politics is “a game for the courageous,” according to him.
“I paid a lot of money during the primaries. I paid 5,000 cedis to each of the 600 delegates but I lost the election.
“Let me tell you this, politics is very expensive. That huge amount I paid was just for endorsement of my candidature. It’s a game for the brave,” Kwabena Owusu Aduomi is quoted as having told a Kumasi-based radio station.
In the 2020 NPP parliamentary primaries, he lost the Ejisu seat to John Kumah, who received 397 votes (55.99 percent) to his 307 votes (43.30 percent).
Meanwhile, the discovery has enraged Professor Kwaku Asare, a Ghanaian legal eminence located in the United States, who has referred to it as the source of the rampant corruption that has defined Ghanaian politics.
A former primary candidate has confessed that he paid ₵5,000 to each of the 600 delegates in the most recent NPP primary. That is, ₵3M or approximately $500k just in “enticement fee” (e-fee).
“That the confession does not come as a surprise or attract the interest of law enforcement shows the extent to which we have allowed money to comorosify our politics.
“We can blame the Constitution, prophesy, Milo, etc. for our woes but the reality is that our problems start with the corruption of our politics.
“We cannot expect politicians who pay e-fees to govern with accountability, probity, and transparency.
As the good book reminds us, those who come to power through comorosification will surely comorosify the national treasury,” professor Asare wrote on his Facebook page in reaction to Kwabena Owusu Aduomi’s revelation.
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