PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE TRUE STATE OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF NANA ADDO FULL TEXT

SAVE NPP NOW!

P. O. Box 64, Effiduase, Ashanti Region, Ghana – West Africa.
Email: savenppnow@gmail.com Telephone: +233 263 41 8929

Date: 10th May, 2016

THE TRUE STATE OF THE NPP:

A PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE TRUE STATE OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO.

Ladies and Gentlemen from the Media, we thank you for your presence here today.

SAVE NPP NOW is a voluntary group of loyalists, supporters, Polling Station Executives, Constituency Executives, Regional Executives, National Executives and grass root members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) both in Ghana and abroad. The group solely exists to serve as a voluntary vigilante assemblage of hard core and die-hard members of the New Patriotic Party to help the party win elections through constant advocacy, research and defence of the traditions and records of the party in the Ghanaian and international media or any other appropriate forum.

The essence of this Press Conference is to bring to your urgent attention, the recent disturbing happenings within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and to also throw light on the current and true state of the party under the leadership of its Flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. We will address three (3) critical issues that have gravely affected the fortunes of the NPP in the last couple of years, thus, ACCOUNTABILITY/CORRUPTION; INTOLERANCE/INSECURITY and LEADERSHIP/ ELECTORAL FORTUNES.

• ACCOUNTABILITY/CORRUPTION IN THE NPP:
As the Communications Director of SAVE NPP NOW, I,(Baah Acheamfour) recently petitioned the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service over alleged siphoning of party funds into an illegal and unauthorized bank accounts by the National Treasurer and 1st National Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Subsequently, a Committee chaired by a former General Secretary, Mr. Ohene Ntow was setup to investigate the matter. I was subsequently invited to testify before the Committee. In the course of the investigations, it came to light that the accused persons (National Treasurer and 1st National Vice Chairman) admitted that they acted ultra vires in the operation of the said bank account at ECOBANK.
Ladies and Gentlemen, what is even more shocking is that they stated that the siphoning of party funds into the illegal and unauthorized account was done with the explicit and express permission of the Flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo. One wonders why Nana Akufo-Addo who is supposed to lead the party by example and campaign on the need to weed out corruption from our governance as a country, will wilfully and without any hesitation endorse the diversion of party funds amounting to Five Million and Two Hundred Thousand Cedis (GHC 5,200,000.00) into a “secret” Ecobank account.
What is even worse is that as we speak today, a huge chunk of those monies which were intended to be used for party activities in the constituencies and polling stations across the country, have been unlawfully expended on the Flagbearer’s numerous trips to the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere.
Of course, we have the documentary evidence and proof to back these facts!

Today in the NPP, it is more expensive to maintain the travelling expenses of the Flagbearer than maintaining the party machinery at the grassroots. The Flagbearer has successfully created a situation where his personal needs and expenses, take priority over the operational needs of the party. Is this situation not frightening?
Whiles we acknowledge the efforts of Dr. Mahamud Bawumia to unravel the mystery surrounding the $250million Eurobond which was allegedly diverted into a private bank, thus, United Bank of Africa, by the Ghana government, we will also want to admonish him to revert his mind to the diversion of Five Million and Two Hundred Thousand Cedis (GHC 5,200,000.00) into a “secret” Ecobank account at his backyard, thus, the New Patriotic Party. Charity they say, begins at home!

Ladies and Gentlemen, you will recall that prior to the 2012 elections, the party launched a fundraising campaign named “Text Fund Raising” where people were expected to contribute their widow’s mite to the party through their mobile phones. This fundraising project was being administered on behalf of the party by a company called “Textgenesys”.

SAVE NPP NOW wishes to authoritatively inform the general public most importantly members of the New Patriotic Party that when the Paul Afoko-led administration took office, the party took a decision to abrogate its’ contract with Textgenesys Company for lack of transparency and unclear terms of contract. However, in a rather shocking development, the current National Treasurer of the NPP, Mr. Abankwa Yeboah secretly, unilaterally and without any recourse to the structures of the party, single-handedly renegotiated the so-called contract with Textgenesys. The renegotiated contract of which a copy is in our possession, is indeed between Mr. Abankwa Yeboah as an individual and Textgenesys. On that basis, it stands to reason that as a matter of fact, the NPP has no contract or whatsoever with Textgenesys.

What is more surprising is that, even though Mr. Abankwa Yeboah claimed that his arrangement with Textgenesys earned the party some revenue, he has failed to provide any evidence or details of such revenue accruing to the party as a result of his private arrangement with Textgenesys.

The uncouth and unprofessional financial dealings of the National Treasurer which allegedly has the tacit endorsement of the Flagbearer is clearly out of order! We still cannot comprehend why Nana Akufo-Addo continues to endorse such acts of financial malfeasance and keeps protecting the perpetrators of such embarrassing and disgraceful actions.

Quite recently, there was a fundraising activity undertaken at the Kumasi Sports Stadium in the Ashanti Region. It will interest Ghanaians to know that in effect, all the funds that have accrued to the party, running into tens of millions of Ghana Cedis, and how they have been used has been shrouded in mystery and secrecy. Any attempt by any member of the party to ask legitimate accountability questions is always met with insults, threats and intimidations.
How can the Nana Akufo-Addo expect Ghanaians to take him serious when he is so opposed to any form of accountability as far as the utilization NPP party funds are concerned? Is it not a shameful occurrence that the NPP which has demonstrated its abhorrence for corruption and love for accountability in the past, is being led today with such undesirable negative character traits as displayed by the Flagbearer?

• INTOLERANCE AND INSECURITY IN THE NPP:
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is an incontrovertible fact that former President J. A. Kufour left or handed over the NPP to Akufo-Addo as a harmonious, peaceful, tolerant and united party. Yet, all these attributes have been shredded into the bin by Nana Akufo-Addo and his intolerant militant wing within the party.

You will all bear with me that a lot of people in Ghana are concerned about the emergence of a pro-violent tradition in the New Patriotic Party through the unorthodox activities of the flagbearer’s armed private paramilitary group called the “invincible forces”. The members of this force constitute an intolerant military wing created by Nana Akufo-Addo and they operate from his residence. They have visited mayhem, intimidations and sometimes blatant and life threatening assaults on innocent members of the party who are perceived as not loyal to the Flagbearer.
We can speak on authority from personal knowledge on the brutalities of this force since the members of SAVE NPP NOW have been victims of their intimidations, harassments, threats and near-fatal attacks.
Only Last week, I,(Baah Acheamfour) was brutally assaulted in the studios of a Kumasi-based radio station, Fox Fm simply because I spoke about issues bothering on accountability in the party. This dastardly act happened on 25th of April, 2016 around 3:30pm. I was in the studio with Abu Sadique of the PNC and I was discussing recent disturbing happenings in the NPP, with respect to the finances of the party and the suspension of Paul Afoko, Kwabena Agyapong and Sammy Crabbe. In the course of the programme, the Ashanti Regional Communications Director of the NPP, Mr. Akwasi Kyei forcefully entered the studio and started pacing around. He made some phone calls and was heard asking the person(s) on the other side of the telephone conversation that “where have you reached? Hurry up.” After about ten (10) minutes, one of the producers of the programme hurriedly entered the studio and announced on air that the Police should be deployed to Fox Fm immediately because of the presence of some “macho-men” who were entering the premises of the radio station.
No sooner had he made the announcements that a group of about seven (7) marauding “macho-men” forcibly entered the studio and started assaulting the producer and host of the programme while asking “where is Baah Acheamfour”.
Obviously, the “macho-men” did not know the identity of me (Baah Acheamfour). It was Mr. Akwasi Kyei who pointed at me and said, “That is Baah Acheamfour”. At that moment, four of them (macho-men) quickly attacked me and punched me from all sides. I was badly hurt on my eyes. The police eventually arrived and escorted me to the hospital for treatment.

The case has been reported to the Ashanti Regional Police Command and I am hopeful that investigations would be carried out and the perpetrators of that shameful act, brought to book. Instead of condemning this barbaric act, the only thing some wall-painting communication members of NPP could do was to brand it as a staged act.
I must also add that, some media personnel engaging in their legitimate duty as the fourth estate of the realm have had their fair share of the cruelty of the intolerant militant wing of the NPP. If you all may recall, immediately after the 2012 elections, some media personnel from Joy FM were beaten and their vehicle vandalized by thugs loyal to Nana Akufo Addo’s in front of his Nima home.
That notwithstanding, a former popular host of Ekosi sen, an afternoon program on Asempa FM, known as Nana Bobie Ansa was also attacked live on air whiles conducting his program by the same intolerant militants of Nana Akufo Addo.
Other seasoned journalists like Adakabre Frimpong Manso and Kwame Tikesie, both of Despite Group Limited were also c