Dozens of electric tricycles, which some activists of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) say were meant for the 2024 presidential campaign activities of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in Ghana’s Upper East Region, have been found parked at a block-making factory in the region’s capital, Bolgatanga.
The motorised three-wheelers, known in the local term as “Aboboyaa” in the country’s south or “motor-king” in the north, are 35 in number, according to sources who spoke to Media Without Borders.
They claimed the automobiles were among a batch of 100 electric-powered tricycles painted only in the NPP’s traditional blue and red colours and freighted to Bolgatanga in 2024 for distribution to some key party members across the region’s 15 constituencies for electioneering activities.
“After one hundred electric tricycles were sent to the region for the 2024 general elections, somebody took thirty-five of them and has been hiding them since then to do his own regional executive election campaign,” said one of the sources.
Some party members were cut out of their share, the sources allege, after the said party official “hid” some of the tricycles.
“They promised a parliamentary candidate one of those electric tricycles,” another source said. “But when the candidate went for it, they told the candidate the tricycles were finished.”
Why campaign tricycles were moved from warehouse to factory
The electric tricycles are currently inside the unfenced yard of the block-making factory, located on the Bolgatanga-Tamale Highway.
The factory is close to the premises of the Bulk Energy Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) and not too far from the campus of the Bolgatanga Senior High School (Big Boss).
Initially, the tricycles were kept inside a warehouse that belongs to a popular businessman, Issah Bukari, who deals in Apsonic automobiles in the capital.
Sources say the tricycles were moved recently to the block-making factory after the businessman, popularly known as Ringo, warned that a team from Apsonic Company Limited would inspect the warehouse anytime soon.
They said the businessman feared that Apsonic Company Limited would accuse him of breach of contract and terminate its agreement with him if inspectors found automobiles from another company in his warehouse.
“He knew it would affect his business if the team found another brand of vehicles in his warehouse,” a source said.
“They’ve used a white tipper truck to block people from seeing the tricycles inside the yard of the block factory from the roadside. They have not even paid the young men they engaged to help relocate the tricycles from the warehouse to the block factory,” another party member told this writer.
Comments from regional chairman, campaign coordinator, businessman
When contacted, the party’s Upper East Regional Chairman, Anthony Namoo, told this author that the party did not receive any tricycles in the region for the 2024 general elections.
“Regional party never received any motor king,” he said. “Regional party did not receive any motor king from anybody.”
This writer also contacted former Executive Secretary to Ghana’s Hajj Board Secretariat, Alhaji Farouk Hamza, on the matter. He was contacted because his name came up later in connection with the tricycles and he was mentioned as Bawumia’s campaign coordinator for the 2024 polls in the region.
The former Hajj Board executive secretary said he purchased a number of electric tricycles in China with his own money prior to the 2024 general elections not just for campaign purposes but also to introduce them to the Bolgatanga market.
He said he distributed some tricycles to parliamentary candidates in the region to support the party’s campaign, while the rest were kept in the warehouse for the businessman to market and sell them in Bolgatanga on his behalf.
“They can write or go to the National Chairman of the NPP, or the Presidential Candidate, or the General Secretary to find out if at any point in time, not just even in 2024 but after the 2020 elections all the way to 2024, whether any item, electric motors, were sent by the party to me or to anybody in the name of the party. They can go and find out,” he stated.
This author also telephoned the businessman (Ringo) for his comment. He confirmed that a friend to Alhaji Farouk conveyed the electric tricycles to his warehouse on Alhaji Farouk’s behalf. But he said they were stored at the facility for safekeeping, not for sale or marketing.
“They (the electric tricycles) were inside my warehouse, and we are not allowed to sell any other [products] apart from Apsonic,” said the businessman.
“And my executives were coming. I cannot tell them that the items were not for me. I had a contract with the company. They would sanction me if they found those motor kings there. So, I asked them to move the motor kings from the warehouse,” he added.
The NPP suffered a complete wipeout in the region in 2024, losing all 15 parliamentary seats including the only seat it previously held in Binduri.
John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the presidential vote with 361,597 (75.7%) votes to Bawumia’s 106,700 (22.3%). The result meant Mahama got about 3 out of every 4 valid votes cast in the region.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana/ West Africa
