Web Master
The suspended National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said that, the NPP, cannot win power with a “militant” and an “intolerant” approach.
Paul Afoko, revealed how the Director of Finance for the Akufo-Addo Campaign, Ken Ofori-Atta, brought some 4 Serbians into Ghana to train NPP Constituency, regional, national executives, and others in the act of civil unrest, and mentioned the NPP National Organiser, John Buadu, and National Women’s Organiser, Otiko Djaba, and others as part of the training.
The Serbians, had preceded the arrival of the three South Africans brought in by the same NPP elements to train party activists in military combats, including weapon drills at an abandoned hotel in the Central Region, called the Al Capitano Hotel.
He also mentioned the NPP flagbearer; Nana Akufo-Addo, as part of the financial mismanagement in the party with respect to the Ecobank Account.
“You can’t win power by being an intolerant militant, and repelling people. I am sounding a note of caution to my party that we should stop this political craziness.
“We are sliding down fast and we should stop it and crawl our way back up and fight for power. That is what I am telling my party,” Afoko told Africa Watch magazine in an exclusive interview.
Afoko, was suspended alongside the General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, and Sammy Crabbe, a national vice chairperson for working against the fortunes of the party ahead of the 2016 elections.
The trio are in court challenging their suspension.
http://ghanapoliticsonline.com
Speaking to the Africa Watch magazine, Afoko said Ghanaians are wondering how a trouble-riddled NPP, can govern the nation when it has on several occasions, failed to resolve its own internal issues.
Mr. Afoko, also revealed that the woes he was facing in the party was because of his decision to enforce certain reforms to rescue the party’s finances from the hands of people he described as unelected people loyal to Nana Akufo-Addo.
In a twist of confusion, Ghana’s opposition party claimed it has suspended its national chairman, Paul Afoko. But in a detailed interview, Afoko, insists he is still the national chairman and that his suspension was illegal and should be disregarded.
He revealed everything about the current troubles in the party that was trying to recapture national power in the upcoming general elections set for November 7, 2016.
He says an “intolerant militant wing” that has occupied a specific position of influence in the party is seeking to hijack the NPP for its own narrow interests. Afoko, has vowed to fight them to the end, to protect the party’s democratic credentials.
He says, he is now in court “to save the party’s constitution, the very embodiment of its principles, that has been trampled upon by the intolerant wing,” a violation that he thinks poses a clear and present danger to the future of the NPP.
Here are excerpts from the interview with Mr. Afoko revealing how Nana Addo and the NPP, plan to come to power through violence;
Question: Throughout this interview, you have been referring to an “intolerant militant wing” that occupies a certain position of influence in the party. Why do you call them intolerant and militant?
Afoko: Let me tell you this story. A few months after taking office in 2014, I was at a church service at the Ridge Church for the late Gladys Asmah. Our national women’s organizer, Otiko Djaba, came in very late and I made way for her to sit beside me. I asked her how she could be so late and she said “chairman, are you not aware that we are camped at a hotel at Mile 7 in Achimota for training by the Serbians? All regional organizers, women organizers, youth organizers, and Nassara coordinators are under- going training by the Serbians.” I said, “what, what’s going on? I don’t know any- thing about it.” My blood started boiling. I asked her who brought the Serbians into the country, and what was the training about? She became quiet.
Immediately after the church service, I asked Djaba to take me to the hotel where they were camped and I asked General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong to join us. When we got to the hotel, I saw our people all over the place with two Serbians, a man and a woman, but I was told the Serbians were four and that two had left. I walked in and saw the national organizer, John Boadu, and I asked him what was going on. He was holding a piece of paper, and I snatched the paper out of his hands. It was the training contents and I was shocked to my bones at what I was reading.
These people were out of their minds. They wanted to win the elections on the streets of Ghana and not at the ballot box. That’s the militancy I am talking about. I told them that I, Paul Afoko, as chairman of the NPP, would never allow them to take the party on that crazy route. In the presence of the two Serbians, I admonished our party people and asked them to leave the hotel immediately and go home.
Q: So the government’s statement that the NPP brought some Serbian nationals into the country in 2014 to train selected people drawn from across the country in the art of civil insurrection, dubbed “Assaulting the Pillars of Power,” is true?
A: The NPP as a group did not bring any Serbians into the country. When I called a Steering Committee meeting on this issue, I was told that Ken Ofori-Atta, a cousin of the presidential candidate, paid the four Serbians and brought them into the country to train our party people. As the chairman of the NPP, I wasn’t aware of it and the Steer- ing Committee also had no knowledge of it.
When people who are related to the presidential candidate or people who are close to secretary, the treasurer and some members of the intolerant militant wing had secretly reactivated a dormant party account at the Ecobank and diverted the funds into the account.
Q: Surely, they did that?
A: Yes! Where does a treasurer get the authority to do that? I leave the answer to your readers.
General Secretary Agyepong had to go to the presidential candidate, Akufo-Addo, and plead with him to talk to the treasurer to release the money. Then the treasurer started putting money piecemeal into one of the party’s official accounts at the GCB, until we got the GH¢2.75 million to give to the constituencies.
Today, as we speak, I doubt if there is any- thing left in the Ecobank account. And I know for sure that the constituencies didn’t get the rest of the money that was approved by the National Council. I know that for a fact! So where is the rest of the money? What a shame!
Guess what? Now we know from a letter written by lawyers for Freddie Blay to the NEC Sub-Committee that Akufo-Addo was present at the meeting that took the illegal and criminal decision to reactivate the dormant account at Ecobank and divert those bankers drafts into it.
These are the things that created the problems. That was one of the flashpoints.
Mr. Afoko also revealed that Nana Akufo-Addo was part of a meeting held by the leaders of the New Patriotic Party, which took the “illegal” and “criminal” decision to reactivate an account at Ecobank, into which the party’s finances were diverted, suspended chairman Paul Afoko has said.
In an interview with Africa Watch Magazine, Mr. Afoko said “shockingly”, a letter written by the lawyers of the party to a sub-committee of the National Executive Committee (NEC) exposed Mr. Akufo-Addo’s complicity in reviving the controversial account into which, he claimed, the national treasurer and his accomplices diverted party funds.
Mr Afoko also revealed that Ghana’s biggest opposition party had only GHS89 in its account as of the time he took over as chairman.
He said the party also had multiple accounts, which were handled by Akufo-Addo loyalists, who were not elected executives of the NPP.
One of such multiple accounts, he said, had about $46,000 in it while the party’s official account was virtually empty.
According to him, his attempt to bring reforms into the party and straighten up its finances got him to incur the wrath of the leaders. He also said he would have succeeded had he had the support of flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo.
In his words, Nana Akufo-Addo’s dissent against any party member is like a “death sentence”, a problem he said confronted him when he became chairman, adding that the three-time flagbearer turned against him even before his election at the party’s Tamale Congress a couple of years ago.
http://ghanapoliticsonline.com
Mr Afoko told the paper that even though he sailed through the Congress against all odds, the sword of Nana Akufo-Addo dangled over his head like the Sword of Damocles.
Mr Afoko, who is fighting his suspension in court, said he will not support the NPP financially. Source: classfmonline.com Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
Post navigation
Previous Previous post: ‘Gov’t Did Not Conjure Job Figures’ –Dr. Omane Boamah
Next Next post: Investment Bankers Call For Measures To Check Possible Terrorism Funding
Share News
submit to reddit
Related Posts
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings