NDC Lies Exposed

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 05 March 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

THE OPPOSITION New Patriotic Party (NPP) has provided just enough evidence to disprove the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its leadership’s claims that they were not invited to the former’s national delegates conference in Kumasi.

The party has been compelled by the raving and ranting of the likes of Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the General Secretary of the NDC, and Richard Quashigah, the Propaganda Secretary, to provide substantial evidence of the invitations extended to the party.

The evidence included a receipt voucher which accompanied the invitation letters sent to the national chairman of the NDC, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, the NDC as a party and various political parties and their national chairmen, twenty-two clears days before the main event; February 5, 2010.

A copy of the receipt voucher, which is in the possession of DAILY GUIDE, indicates that not only the NDC, but the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Peoples National Convention (PNC) and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) indeed acknowledged receipt of the invitations extended to them.

In the case of the NDC, and for that matter its national chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, the voucher indicated that one Bonney at the party headquarters duly signed and received the invitation on his behalf.

For this reason the NPP believes that if for one reason or the other Dr. Kwabena Adjei and the NDC failed to respond and honour the invitation, they should not create the impression that they were not invited.
The NPP believes that the NDC deliberately did not show up at its national delegates conference and for that matter their claims are false.

The opposition party thus demands that the ruling party retract statements suggesting they were not invited.

Communications Director of the party, Kwaku Kwarteng yesterday said they were making the documents public in order to stop the NDC from misinforming Ghanaians.

“We think it is healthy for our democracy that relationships be clean; political parties be cordial”, was how he put it, stressing that “this will conclude the matter and that the NDC retract their denial and apologise to the people of this country”.

As of yesterday, Asiedu Nketiah, popularly known as General Mosquito, was still insisting on Citi FM that the party that did not receive the invitation.

His argument was that it was not brought by a senior member of the NPP, and that accounted for the confusion.

In a related development, the International Democrat Union (IDU) has congratulated the NPP for a successful national delegates conference.

A statement signed by its General Secretary, Eirik Moen recognised the invaluable contribution of the party’s former chairman, Peter Mac Manu.

As party chairman and chairman of the Democratic Union of Africa (DUA), the statement said “Peter Mac Manu has been an excellent global ambassador for the NPP, as well as a superb DUA chairman”.

It thus expressed hope and optimism that the DUA will be able to benefit from his experience and good council for many years to come.

Exposed

How NALAG Prez `fooled` NPP
Posted: Friday, February 26, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

Extensive investigations conducted by The Chronicle have uncovered how the former President of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), George Kyei Baffour, ‘fooled’ the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) into believing that he was one of their kind, and subsequently gave him an appointment.

Documents in the possession of the paper indicate that at the time he was serving under the Kufuor-led NPP administration, Mr. Kyei Baffour was not just a card-bearing member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), but was indeed a paid-up member of the Ahenbronum branch in the Asante Akim South constituency of the party.

He was therefore funding the NDC as a party in diverse ways, through his special monetary contributions, for organising the party.

Though he is believed to have joined the NPP as a registered member in the year 2004, he was still holding on to his membership of the NDC, as of the year 2009, when he was serving in the NPP government.

This gives a clear indication that Mr. Kyei Baffour did not either resign or retire his membership of the NDC, and still owed allegiance to both parties. The situation compelled some members of the Asante Akim North constituency of the NPP, who realised his game plan, to send a petition to the national headquarters of the party.

This was the time he declared his intention to contest for the constituency secretary of the Asante Akim North constituency of the NPP.

The petition, which was signed by one Stephen Boampong, and sent to the national executives of the party through party Chairman, Peter Mac Manu, was meant to block Mr. Kyei Baffuor’s bid to contest for the position.

Mr. Boampong stated that he and his colleagues had gathered information from members of the NDC in Konongo, that Kyei Baffuor’s name still existed as a founding member of the NDC, and that he had never written any letter of resignation to the party.

For this reason, the petitioners said Kyei Baffuor was still a member of the NDC.

However, the leadership of the party did not pay heed to the petitioner, and Kyei Baffuor eventually became the Asante Akim North constituency secretary of the NPP.

Strenuous efforts to reach Kyei Baffuor on his cell phone to get his input into this story has proven futile, since the network operator kept saying the phone was either switched off, or out of coverage area.

Ahead of Saturday`s crucial conference

ANTO BREAKS OWN COVENANT
… Canvasses votes for Jake, execs mad over decision
Posted: The Chronicle |Thursday, February 25, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) may after all not be committed to his much-touted call for neutrality and equal treatment for aspirants contesting for various positions in the party, as he has sought to portray.

At a meeting with his own regional executives at the popular Royal Park Chinese Restaurant, near Ahodwo in Kumasi somewhere last week, Mr. Fredrick Fredua Anto was said to have canvassed for votes for Mr. Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, who is running for the national chairmanship position of the party, alongside others, including Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobbey, Steve Ntim, Felix Owusu Agyapong, and Sammy Crabbe.

This was when he introduced Jake to the executives, and told them that he has had the opportunity of working with Jake since the year 2000 to date, and that he could attest to his competence and abilities, and thus endorses his candidature.

Mr. Anto has confirmed to The Chronicle that he, together with the executives, met Jake at the said hotel when the latter was seeking to sell himself to them.

Though the Regional Chairman admitted telling the executives that Ntim was his long-standing friend, he said, he did not categorically ask them not to vote for him, and that he would also not vote for him.

According to him, the only thing he told them was, “they should vote for a very experienced person, and somebody who can do the job.”

“I told them the issue is not about friendship, because Ntim is also my friend, but my decision was based purely on competence,” he said, emphasising, “I’ve sat on the National Council with him before. When I was the chairman, he was also the first vice chairman, and I said I am going to vote, based on competence, not on friendship, that is what I told everybody to do.”

This virtual turn-around by Mr. Anto has made some of his own executives become jittery about his commitment to his acclaimed ‘principle’ of neutrality and unity among contestants to all positions in the party.

Some of them, who confided in the paper, have thus resolved to defy his instructions and campaign for their choice of candidates, since according to them, they were ‘fooled’ into believing his words.

On his part, Jake, who was said to have gone into the region in the company of his newly-employed interpreter, one Achamfuor, was said to have told the executives that he single-handedly fought for the Nasara Club to be given voting rights in the NPP, and also prided himself on bringing then candidate Kufuor to power in the year 2000.

With this, he was said to have expressed optimism that when given the mandate to assume the position of national chairman, he would be able to return the party to power come 2012, and therefore asked the executives to bless him with the opportunity.

Mr Anto promised to personally stay clear of campaigning for or against any of the individuals eying various positions in the party, and asked his regional and constituency executives to follow suit.