Did Mahama "share money" at Abossey Okai?

The Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah has said a video showing President John Mahama supposedly giving out money on one of his campaign tours in Accra may have been doctored.

According to him, President Mahama, by tradition, does not carry money along with him.

A video which has gone viral on social media shows President Mahama sharing money to some traders when he visited the Abossey Okai market in Accra last week.

The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) in August published a pre-election survey report, in which the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was found to be the leading political party in vote buying ahead of the 2016 general election.

The report indicated that about 51 percent of Ghanaians who took part in the survey said the Mahama government has been offering gifts in exchange for their votes.

But speaking on Joy FM Thursday morning, Mr Debrah said although he was yet to see the video, he was of the belief that the President would not go to that extent of sharing money for votes.

Watch the video here

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Mr Debrah said however that it could be possible that the video was doctored since “these days everything is possible.”

“But knowing President Mahama he wouldn’t deliberately go to the market place and just throw money away. He’s a very experienced person. Having worked with him closely I know he looks before he jumps and I believe that under no circumstance would he be throwing money around,” he said.

He explained further that “Anytime the president walks, he doesn’t carry cash on him. It’s either with his ADC or some of the protocol officers. And that has been the tradition so I’ll be very very surprised that the President Mahama did that.”

Mr Debrah added that what the President was sharing “could be a leaflet”.