Stephen Atubiga, a flagbearer aspirant of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says he is capable of raising the GHc 420,000 filing fees through the help of his friends and supporters.
“NDC has a population of about 5million and many of them are requesting for my account number to deposit and contribute to pay for my filing fees. So far in all the ten regions, I have covered, we’ve spent between not less than Ghc 2,000 and Ghc 5,000 which is even more than the filing fees, not to even talk about hotel bills and other stuff,” he told Peace FM.
He said the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should invite or arrest and interrogate him if he is able to single-handedly doll out almost $100,000 to pay for his filing fees.
All male flag bearer aspirants of the NDC are expected to pay GHc 400,000 as filing fee while female flag bearer aspirants and persons with disability are to pay GHc 200,000 and GHc 150,000 respectively.
The nomination form is going for GHc 20,000.
General Secretary of the party announced the decision at a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Thursday, 29 November at the party’s headquarters in Accra.
According to the party, all aspirants have up to 10 days to submit the forms.
Stephen Atubiga speaking in an interview on Friday’s edition of Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, with sit-in host, Nana Yaw Kesse, he said he can even afford to pay for former President John Mahama.
“Don’t be surprised to hear that Atubiga even paid for John Dramani Mahama, because the kind of support I am getting from Ghanaians is overwhelming and I may have enough money to pay for John Dramani Mahama . . . He doesn’t have that money, I don’t think he has that money. If he has that money I’ll make them arrest him. Where is he going to get that money? How much is his salary?” Atubiga stated, vowing that no politician has that kind of money sitting in his bedroom.
He added that the EOCO should arrest and question any politician who has that money to pay for that filing fees.
“It is people who are going to contribute for us all, I don’t think any politician has that money sitting in their bedroom,” he added.
Picking of forms by aspirants commences at 9am to 5pm on the 3rd of December and ends on the 4th of the same month.
Candidates according to the General Secretary of the party will have 10 days to go round all the 275 constituencies to have their forms endorsed by branch and regional executives of the party.
Submission of forms will also begin on the 13th and 14th of December between 9am and 5pm on the said dates.
He added that vetting commences on the 17th and 18th of December this year to assess aspirants who would want to lead the party for election 2020.
