Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has dismissed claims that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) funded his education abroad.

The economist in a statement says the NDC had nothing to do with his education and he was never on government scholarship.

“While my initial instinct was to laugh off and ignore such a palpable lie, I have come to understand that the NDC machinery specializes in the fabrication of such stories and would continue repeating them until they assume ring of truth,” the statement said.

NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia had earlier said the economist who has consistently taunted government over its economic performance was aided by the party.

Dr Bawumia's late father Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia had served as Chairman of the Council of State under the NDC government.

Mr Nketia said the former Deputy Governor of Ghana’s Central Bank’s father joined virtually every political party that was formed during the post-independence era.

“From the Northern People’s Party, then when the minority parties came to form the United Party (UP), he joined that party as well. He later joined the CPP and he became the District Commissioner.

"He further joined Dr Limann’s party where he was made the Minister for Cocoa Affairs [and] until his death, he was the Chairman of the Council of State under ex-President J.J Rawlings,” he had said.

He said it was during the period his father served as Chair of the Council of State that the banker was awarded a scholarship to study abroad.

He added that when Dr Bawumia returned from abroad his father assisted him to get employment at the Bank of Ghana. “He is a true NDC person whom the NPP has taken as their running mate.”

Agriculture Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru-Limuna was also reported to have made a similar claim when addressed some residents of Walewale.

But the former lecturer of London’s Emile Woolf College of Accountancy said there was no way the NDC played a role in his education considering the party was formed in 1992 when he was mid-way through his Ph.D studies at Simon Fraser University. He said the programme was financed through fellowships and teaching assistantships.

“Why would persons such as the General Secretary of the NDC and a Minister of State engage in the deliberate fabrication and peddling of such a falsehood?” he quizzed, adding this is a scheme by government to evade response to the 170 facts he presented about the economy at a public lecture held in August.

At the lecture, he accused the NDC government of “recklessly mismanaging” the Ghanaian economy after it has added $39 billion to Ghana’s debt stock within eight years.

“This is not how politics should be done If they are looking for something to attack me on they can at least start with a response to the 170 facts from my lecture,” he said.

With this attitude of the NDC, he said it is clear that government has lost the “argument on [the economic] issues and now resorted to attacking my person with fabricated lies.”

“That strategy will fail. You cannot run a country with propaganda and lies,” he said.