The Information Minister has described as baseless and useless claims by the NPP that President John Mahama and his brother tried to bribe its Northern Regional Chairman.

Dr Omane Boamah challenged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to provide more evidence of its claims that the president tried to bribe its Northern regional Chairman, Bugri Naabu.

The opposition NPP has accused President John Dramani Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim Mahama, of attempting to bribe the Northern Regional Chairman of the party, Daniel Bugri Naabu.

Mustapha Hamid

Mustapha Hamid, who addressed the media, said the intention was to get Bugri Naabu to turn against the NPP’s flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, portray him as a divisive ethnocentric bigot and destroy his chances of winning the 2016 elections.

Read more: Mahama bribed NPP Northern Region chair with cars, cash to denigrate Akufo-Addo- NPP alleges

Speaking on the Super Morning Show, Friday,  the Information Minister said the allegations were planned by the NPP to tarnish the image of the President in response to a press conference he (Omane) organised on Monday.

"I got this call on Monday after the press conference that that was what they were going to do...and I was in the car with my Deputy Felix Kwakye-Ofosu when the call came through so I was expecting it," Dr Omane Boamah claimed.

He said the claims were made "just to confuse" the people as the country goes to the polls in five days and stated categorically that "the President has not and will not bribe anybody let alone Mr Bugri Naabi. For what?"

He indicated that the government is ready to engage the NPP if they have "any shred of evidence that will pin President Mahama to this useless and baseless allegations."

But the Communications Director of the NPP speaking on the same platform insisted that President Mahama engaged in the act.

Nana Akomea

Nana Akomea dismissed suggestions that Bugri Naabu bought the car himself and concocted the story and insisted that that could have been easily traced through the records of the car.

"If that happened the records will show that Bugri Naabu came to this place, he bought this car for this amount, this is the cheque he issued, and this is the receipt he received," he insisted.

He was resolute that the NPP presented enough evidence to prove that that President Mahama and his brother tried to bribe Bugri Naabu to damage the NPP Presidential candidate.