<<Print>>

Paul Boateng, Special aide to Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, has said it is not true that NDC founder Jerry Rawlings has accepted to campaign for his party for the forthcoming polls. There are rumours that Mr. Rawlings has accepted an invitation from NDC to play an active part in the party�s campaign. Other reports said Mr. Rawlings accepted the invitation and gave the NDC his word of starting campaigning after a meeting with some founding members recently. But reacting to the issue, Mr. Boateng, who claimed to be present at the said meeting which was held in Accra, denied the speculations. According to him, the NDC founding members who attended the meeting with the founder initially pleaded on behalf of the entire NDC fraternity about the incessant insults that some recalcitrant members of the party had hurled at him without any provocation in the past. Mr. Boateng said the NDC founding members who attended the meeting included one Alhaji Thousand and Kofi Mintah, ex-Central regional chairman of the party. Mr. Rawlings and his family, it would be recalled, were, sometime in the past, taken to the cleaners by some top members of the NDC without provocation. He was once even referred to as barking dog but he did not utter a word. Mr. Boateng, speaking on Kessben Fm in Kumasi, said Mr. Rawlings wholeheartedly accepted the ruling party�s apology for the insults. He noted that the NDC founding members therefore implored Mr. Rawlings to forget the past misdeeds of some members of the party and join the party�s campaign trail to ensure victory for the NDC in the general elections. Mr. Boateng stated that though Mr. Rawlings accepted the party�s apology, he did not give the NDC his firm word of joining the party�s campaign. �Mr. Rawlings did not accept to campaign for the NDC during the meeting. I was present at the meeting and nothing of that happened during the meeting as being speculated around,� he stressed. Mr. Boating asked Ghanaians to treat the rumor with all the contempt it deserved, stating �if Mr. Rawlings indeed accepted to campaign for the NDC as is being speculated, why is he still not joining the NDC campaign team?�