The National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress Joshua Akamba has challenged claims by former Kumasi mayor Kojo Bonsu that he introduced the ‘unity walk’ concept which propelled the grounds for Mr. Mahama’s comeback as leader of the NDC.
Mr. Bonsu has for long maintained he is the brain behind the ‘unity walk’ accusing Mr. Mahama of taking advantage of his idea to keep his hold on the party.
“The acrimony [in the NDC] was too much, [and] the blame game was going on and that was dividing the party.”
“So I was very worried. I told myself that if we didn’t take care this party will be divided. So the only way to do something to help salvage the acrimony is to do something sporty. So I and some others came around and I told him about it. So I started creating something around unity. I created something called unity heals, unity this and unity that, posting on all NDC platforms just to get people ready for the unity walk.
“We agreed and we did the first one in Tamale. Mahama took advantage of it. The walks were not done for Mahama. The walks were not done for any individual. It was for unity,” he told Good Evening Ghana in October 2019.
But speaking to Francis Abban Monday, 25 February 2019, Mr. Akamba said he is the mana who brought the idea up and not Mr. Bonsu.
“When we had our last unity walk in the Volta region I told Mahama he will get 98% of votes. About a week to the elections, I told Hon. Julius Debrah in his house that Mahama will make 98% after the elections. Before we came up with the idea of the Unity Walk which I proposed, I had done some work on the ground and I noticed the Unity Walk will help a lot because the grounds were very hot,” he said.
Mahama polled a whopping 213,487 votes representing 95.23% of the total votes cast to beat the six other contestants to lead the largest opposition party in the 2020 general elections.
A former vice chancellor of UPSA, Prof. Joshua Alabi, came in a distant second with 3,404 votes representing 1.52% of total votes cast and was followed by second deputy speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin who had 2,301 votes representing 1.03% of the total votes.
Goosie Tanoh obtained 2,091 votes (0.93%), Sylvester Mensah, formerly with the NHIA polled a paltry 934 (0.42%) votes with former Trade Minister Ekow Spio-Garbrah garnering 1,447 votes representing 0.65%.
Nurudeen Iddrisu came last with 520 votes representing 0.23% of the total votes cast.
Total valid votes cast were 225,521 representing 99.20% of votes cast with rejected ballots standing at1,337 (0.79%).
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
