Former New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidate for Kpone Katamanso, Hopeson Adorye, has alleged that people who booed President Akufo-Addo at the recently held Global Citizen Festival were paid an amount of GH₵120 by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Okay FM on September 28, Adorye alleged that the NDC through the Chief Executive Officer of 3 Music Awards, Baba Sadiq, Larry Dogbe and one Suhuyini organized seventy-five Fadama boys to stage the incident.
He opined that the booing was orchestrated by the NDC as a result of the one-sided video from the incident even though ‘all the bloggers in Ghana were present and streamed live’.
He mentioned that the president was not originally billed to be at the event but was able to make it because he had arrived a day earlier from the 77th United Nations General Assembly.
Baba Sadiq, he alleged was the mastermind having picked up information from organizers of the event that the president was going to be present.
“Per the information I had, it was the Trade or the Tourism Minister who was supposed to be at the festival to address the attendees.
“But the fact that the president attended one in South Africa and requested that if it comes to Ghana, he will be happy. It was going to Nigeria.
“One of the two ministers was supposed to come because of President Akufo-Addo’s UN engagement. But fortunately, the president was able to arrive before the day of the event.
“They had conversations with him and it was agreed that he will come. Because Sadiq of 3 Music Awards is an industry player and has a connection with the lead organizers, when he heard it, he and Larry Dogbe and Suhuyini met at a particular place to plan.
“They contracted 75 boys from Fadama and paid each one of them GH¢120. The videos trending is testament to it. It was from one particular shot,” Hopeson Adorye said.
President Akufo-Addo was among high-profile dignitaries who graced the Global Citizen Festival which took place at the Black Star Square in Accra on September 24.
When it was his turn to deliver a short presentation, a section of the crowd began to chant and clap ‘away, away….’.
The president remained calm and delivered his speech. Deputy Communications Officer of the New Patriotic Party Ernest Owusu Bempah has in a statement accused the opposition National Democratic Congress as orchestrating the plot to embarrass the president.
However, the NDC has rejected the accusation insisting that the booing was only an indication of the frustrations of Ghanaians.