New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Bibiani Anhwiaso Constituency, Alfred Obeng-Boateng says he has the financial strength to ensure the delegates of the party retain him in the party’s upcoming parliamentary primaries.
In a media interview circulating on social media, the former CEO of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) asked his competitors to prepare adequately financially if they really want to unseat him.
The lawmaker who is also the Vice Chairperson of Parliament’s Government Assurance Committee said he will offer double whatever his contenders offer to NPP delegates.
“I am telling you that the money I will use for the primaries is in dollars and that money has been secured long ago, I must be frank with you. That is money I am not touching under any circumstance.
“So I laugh seeing all that they are doing, I have dollars there for that primaries. What I can tell my delegates is that I will pay more than double what anyone who will contest me will offer them, they should take that from me. If they come together and decide to pay GHC10,000 per delegate I will pay more than that.”
“Whatever they pay, even if they pay GHC20,000 I will pay more than GHC20,000 because I know how much I have put there; I know how much I have reserved. That is why I saved in dollars so that the money will not lose value,” he noted.
Mr Obeng-Boateng in a subsequent video he shared with JoyNews, justified his comments insisting no law bars him from saving such amounts.
According to him, he cannot allow his competitors to threaten him financially and not do the same in return.
If I say I have kept my monies in dollars, that does not mean I have kept them in the house. It only means that part of my money is in dollars and I have exchanged same and it could be at the bank or it could also be in my room and there is no offence or criminality in that. There is nothing wrong with that. I decide where I want to keep my money.
If I also said that in the upcoming primaries, whatever my competitors will, I will offer more than them, they should know that I was responding to a threat from someone saying that he was going to pay money, who was he going to pay to and for what reason. So that is why I said I will pay more than them because if someone threatens, I have to be able to threaten the person back.