<<Print>>

Belligerent Ashanti regional chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Bosiako�s vow to secure 80 percent votes for his party in its stronghold of Ashanti in the upcoming 2016 elections may not be a fluke after all, The Al-Hajj�s intelligence can confirm. He may just have opened up on a tiny aspect of his strategies and capabilities to kick out the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) from government. Information available to The Al-Hajj indicates that not only has Bernard Antwi Bosiako, also known in political circles as Chairman Wontumi, penetrated into the camp of the ruling party, he has indeed succeeded in having the entire structure of the NDC, and the Mahama government in his deep pocket. Relying heavily on his economic might, Chairman Wontumi, who has since his election been tormenting the NDC in the Ashanti region, according to this paper�s sources, has political bedmates in the ruling party who are more than willing to be at his beck and call providing him with information including those classified. Shockingly, the Ashanti regional NPP braggart Chairman is reported to have his eyes and ears not only in the ruling NDC, but also in the opposition NDP led by Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and the Rawlings household in general. Among his �bed followers� in the NDC are said to include ministers, some deputy ministers, party stalwarts, officials at the seat of government and a loud mouth self-professed aficionado of the Rawlingses. Video recordings and photographs in the possession of The Al-Hajj revealed how some functionaries of the NDC, a serving deputy Minister, and NDP officials have been trooping to Chairman Wontumi�s offices in Accra and Kumasi to solicit for funds or passing on sensitive information for irresistible mouthwatering favors said to include huge amount of money and even 4x4 vehicles. The latest official to benefit from the maverick NPP braggart Wontumi�s benevolence, a brand new Tundra pickup for his �valuable� services, a source close to him told this paper, is an NDP guru ensconced in the Rawlings� household. Apart from the large sums of the �galamsey� cash the NPP man is reported lavishing on these officials, the task for the latest beneficiary of the vehicle, the source disclosed to this paper is to do �everything� to weaken the ruling party by enticing disenchanted members of the NDC especial FONKAR guys to the NDP, citing his now improved personal lifestyle. Another source disclosed that �Wontumi knows whatever happens in Rawlings� house�he sometimes get to know what Rawlings will do the next day or the people he will meet during the week and the likely discussions they will have in advance. As for the NDC party and the Mahama government, all their plans are in his palms.� Replicating how he won his position during his party�s election of constituency and regional executives, Chairman Wontumi, who is said to be school mate of deputy Ashanti regional minister, Joseph Yamin, and deputy Communication Director of National Democratic Party, Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah at Prempeh College, is reported to be sponsoring some NDC candidates to contest the party�s impending constituency, regional and national executive elections in furtherance of his effort at promoting the interest of the NDP. Sources close to him have been bragging to friends how their �rich� Chairman is using his limitless financial resources to plant his friends and moles in the NDC at sensitive party positions to make 2016 a walkover for the NPP not only in the Ashanti region, but in other regions as well. However, latest report reaching this paper indicates that Chairman Wontumi is seething with anger following severe beatings he suffered from some alleged supporters of the NDC in the Asawase constituency over the weekend as a response to a deadly pummeling of an NDC constituency chairman in the Ashanti region sometime last week. Reeling under sever pains as result of the beatings, he is said to have threatened to expose all NDC kingpins including a minister, deputy ministers and some officials at the Flag Staff House who have benefitted from his largesse during his ordeal with state security and seizure of his equipment over alleged �galamsey� operations some of who, he is now accusing of been behind the attacks on him. One of his close allies (name withheld) confided in a friend in a telephone conversation that ��now, Chairman Wontumi is interested in working with only committed and loyal kingpins of the NDC�as for those who come to him for money and other favors and later go and plot evil against him, we will expose all of them and make sure they lose their positions.� Following his misfortune over the weekend, Chairman Wontumi is reported to have tagged Joseph Yamin a bad person �who is my close friend since our school days at Prempeh College but planned for his boys to attack me after I called him personally to explain circumstances under which led to my altercation with NDC chairman for Asawase.� He told a Kumasi radio station. Aside NPP activities and the monies he is alleged to be spending on his NDC friends, the Ashanti regional NPP chairman is said to be bankrolling the almost collapsed National Democratic Party (NDP), a party formed in the run up to the 2012 by Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings to slim the chances of NDC in the last election. The NPP chairman is also said to be working tirelessly to revive the NDP and make it a force to reckon with ahead of the 2016 elections to wreck the havoc they couldn�t do to the NDC in the 2012 elections.