Founder of The New Force, a political movement, Nana Kwame Bediako, also known as Cheddar, has formerly reacted to the stolen identity saga over who was the originator of the man behind the mask.
In 2023, The New Force billboards were sighted almost all over the country with the identity of the originator hidden behind a mask.
In November, independent presidential aspirant, Dr. Sam Ankrah, was in the news following the launch of his ‘No Masked Promises’ campaign and was linked to the New Force.
Following this, The New Force refuted media reportage that independent presidential hopeful and businessman, Sam Ankrah, is the man behind the mask.
In a statement dated November 20, 2023, the movement indicated that Sam Ankrah has nothing to do with their campaign.
The New Force accused the presidential hopeful of trying to steal the ideas of young Ghanaians to run a political campaign.
“Our attention has been drawn to certain images circulated by one Sam Ankrah on social media fraudulently purporting to be the originator of the viral “The Man in the Mask” campaign created by #TheNewForce. We have also noticed subsequent media publications commissioned by him projecting himself to be “The Man in the Mask.”
“We wish to state categorically that the said Sam Ankrah has no connection to the creative concept, design, and inventive process that developed the “The Man in the Mask” campaign.
“We are disappointed that Mr. Sam Ankrah has sought to deliberately exploit the ingenuity of young Ghanaians and coopted their vision and creativity to project dubious political ambitions.
“We consider his conduct to be reprehensible and evidence of a lack of credibility that undermines him as a person as well as someone capable of leading a new political vision for a country that is in need of a clean break from the kind of dirty politics we witness on a daily basis,” part of the statement reads.
But Mr Sam Ankrah dismissed claims of misappropriating the intellectual property of the ‘Man in the Mask’ campaign.
“At no point during my campaign have I purported or expressly claimed to be the originator of the so-called ‘Man in the Mask’ campaign. Neither has he claimed anywhere that he is the ‘Man in the Mask.’
At the time of launching his campaign and disseminating his political messages, I refute the existence of a legal or natural person(s) by the name ‘The Man in the Mask’ and #TheNewForce.’ Furthermore, I had no knowledge of any intellectual property rights vested in that person(s) or name,” he insisted.
Seven months ago, The New Force stated that it was filing a complaint against Ankrah at the Electoral Commission because his action amounted to a violation of the Political Parties Act 2000.
“On the advice of our lawyers, our team will be filing a complaint with the Electoral Commission against him for violating Section 6 of the Political Parties Act 2000 (Act 526).”
But the movement failed to live by its word. In a recent interview with Nana Kwame Bediako on Peace FM, Cheddar noted that, with regard to the alleged identity theft, he leaves it in the hands of God almighty.