Aftermath of `successful` congress

NDC ACTS ON MILLS` ORDERS
… Investigates congress bribery allegations
Posted: The Chronicle |Monday, January 25, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

The ruling party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has begun investigations into bribery and vote-buying allegations which rocked its women and youth congresses.
This follows an order given by President Mills at the party’s recent National Delegates’ Congress in Tamale that the newly-elected executives should investigate the issue, and get to the bottom of the matter.

President Mills, after telling the people that he had no faction in the party, was also unhappy with the fact that some of the people surrounding him had been named in the allegation.

The Chronicle has gathered that one of the contestants who lost at the youth congress held in Sunyani, has taken advantage of the order by the President, to file a petition at the National Secretariat of the party to investigate a number of allegations he has made against some of his opponents in the race, and leading members of the party.

The petitioner, Mohammed Abdulai Mubarak, alias Ras Mubarak, has named the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, Communications Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, and Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, and their agents, as some of the leading members who supported wrongdoings at the youth congress.

The rest include the Deputy Finance Minister, Fifi Kwetey, Director of Communications at the Office of the President, Koku Anyidoho, and Ludwig Hlodze, a presidential staffer, who contested and won the position of National Youth Organiser.

The party chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei, would neither confirm nor deny receipt of the petition and subsequent investigation.

“Do you want me to say we are investigating,” he asked this reporter when contacted on phone yesterday.

In the petition, which was copied to President Mills and former President Rawlings among others, he accused the aforementioned individuals of using the name and office of President Mills, to get Ludwig Hlodze elected as the National Youth Organiser of the NDC, at the recent youth congress in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo regional capital, on January 9, this year.

According to Mubarak, the entire process for the election was hijacked by these ministers and presidential staffers, to get the outcome they wanted. “The pretensions of ministers and presidential staffers on being neutral players, took a different turn, when they told delegates: ‘Ludwig is the President’s man’ and ‘only the President’s man’ can get things done for them,” he noted.

According to the petitioner, the Regional Minister, Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, “used his official residence as the epicenter of the fraud against the youth of the party,” stressing: “he presided over a meeting of all ten regional youth organisers.”

The meeting was said to have been attended by persons, including Michael Kumbor, who was a candidate in the youth congress, Ludwig Hlodze (a candidate himself), Koku Anyidoho and Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources.

At the said meeting, the aggrieved Mubarak claimed that Michael Kumbor was told he had to step down, because Ludwig had the approval of the President, since according to him, the so-called ‘castle team’ told the delegates not to allow the perceived ‘Rawlings camp’ to win the youth leadership of the party.

“All ten regional youth organisers were told they had to ‘do everything to get Ludwig elected,’ because the President will be embarrassed if he lost,” he alleged.

In the case of Haruna Iddrisu, his accuser said at 10:36 p.m. on January 8, 2010, he went to the delegates’ village, where delegates from the Northern, Upper East, Upper West regions, and members of TEIN were being housed. When the Minister arrived, Mubarak noted that one of the contenders for the position of youth organiser – Abdul Rahman Gundadoo was addressing members of TEIN.

There and then, he noted: “the minister interrupted the meeting, and asked Gundadoo not to contest,” emphasising: “the reason for asking the candidate to step down, was ostensibly to get delegates from the Northern Region to support Ludwig.”

“Indeed, one of the regional youth organisers from the Northern Region, had confirmed to me Gundadoo was sponsored by Haruna to scuttle my votes from the Northern Region.

And as if by divine intervention, the said candidate on the day of election, told delegates, in the full glare of the media, that he was stepping down because ‘they had asked him to step down’,” he stated.

Furthermore, Mubarak claims that GH¢20 each, a mobile phone and T-shirts were given to delegates in exchange for votes.

That notwithstanding, Mubarak alleged that inducements for votes and promises of auctioned vehicles were made to delegates from other regions. At one of such meetings on the morning of January 9, 2010 with delegates from the Ashanti Region, he indicated that the Deputy Minister of state repeated similar promises, saying: “He told them Ludwig was at the Castle and had the ear of the president.”

Due to this, Mubarak believes “the incompetence of the organisers of the youth congress, created an opportunity for some of the candidates to exploit a bad situation.”

This, according to him, was evident in the fact that the delegates were housed in mosquito infested dormitories, with poor toilet facilities, and without meals, to enable one Siidi Musah Abubakar, a candidate in the race, to provide hotel accommodation for the delegates, thereby compromising their ability to vote without thinking.

He, however, noted that all of this happened at a time the party needed to build bridges and mend fences, stressing: “Ludwig himself confirmed receiving support from government appointees when he spoke to Joy FM, in response to my accusations on Sunday January 10, 2010. We cannot allow this to happen in our party,” he added.

Ras Mubarak, as he is affectionately called, has therefore appealed to President Mills to cause an investigation of the aforementioned individuals, who used his name in an internal party election, noting with emphasis: “what they have done, is to deepen perception of factionalism in the party.” “At a time when party unity was very critical, the ‘special interest group’ – using the name of the President, acted in a manner that leaves many observers wondering about their commitment to the unity of the party,” he noted.

He has therefore appealed to the President to ask the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, Communications Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, Deputy Finance Minister, Fifi Kwetey, Communications Director at the Presidency and Ludwig Hlodze, a presidential staffer, to all step aside as his appointees, for using the President’s name for their personal agenda. Mubarak has also asked the leadership of the party to immediately condemn this act of subversion, and offer appropriate sanctions to be meted out against the government appointees.

Attempts to reach the individuals, whose names have been mentioned on their cell phones, proved futile, since most of them, including the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, Fifi Kwetey and Koku Anyidoho, did not answer their phones.

They did not also respond to text messages sent to their phones.

Alhaji Collins Dauda and Ludwig Hlodze also had their phones switched off.