Ejisu by-election: Kwadaso MP gave money to EC officials out of goodwill – Ahiagbah

The Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has acknowledged that the emergence of a video in which Kwadaso MP, Professor Kingsley Nyarko is seen offering a ‘white envelope’ to some Electoral Commission (EC) officials, raises concerns.

Richard Ahiagbah, however, emphasised that Prof Nyarko was only conversing with the EC officials about the electoral process and based on their discussions, established that the EC officials had not eaten, hence his offer of the money.

Mr Ahiagbah dismissed suggestions that Prof Nyarko could have provided a smaller amount of money if it was truly intended for food.

He contended that even if Prof Nyarko had taken that course of action, individuals would have still accused him of bribing EC officials and considered his actions to be an electoral offense.

“If he had given 1 cedi to buy water, the same conversation would be had here, so it has nothing to do with the envelope or 50 cedis. The idea is that the individual at the moment decided to give that,” he said.

Mr Ahiagbah clarified that it is not the ruling party’s design for the Kwadaso MP to do what he did, stressing that the NPP did not sanction anything like that.

“On his own humanitarian level (he) feels he wants to do that, we can judge it for what he has done and apply what systems we can put in place to check that in the future but he did that out of his goodwill seeking to help another.

“It cannot be for the purposes of the New Patriotic Party because I know he’s not been put to that,” Mr Ahiagbah said on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday.

Background

The Member of Parliament for Kwadaso Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Professor Kingsley Nyarko was caught on camera handing over an envelope suspected to contain cash to some Electoral Commission (EC) officials at a polling centre in the just ended by-election at Ejisu.

In a viral video that has been trending on social media, Mr Nyarko was seen surreptitiously pulling the white envelope from his pocket and placing it on the table in front of the EC officials.

Subsequently, the Electoral Commission (EC) withdrew the two temporary staff after many raised the alarm.

In a statement, the EC said it was dedicated to upholding its core principles of integrity, truth, and transparency.

“The Electoral Commission has taken immediate steps and has withdrawn the two (2) temporary staff while investigations take place.

“The commission upholds the principles and values of integrity, truth and transparency. These values are reinforced during the training of all temporary staff.