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NPP stalwart, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has confirmed that Nana Akufo-Addo would not be involving the party’s elected national executives in his 2016 presidential election campaign.

In a frank statement posted on social network, Gabby, who is a close aide to Nana Akufo-Addo, wrote:

“NPP, the earlier you admit that you have a huge problem and find a way to confront it the better. 18 months or so to the next election and mistrust, schemes and inaction are what I see. I am not worried about the presidential campaign because that campaign can run perfectly without the party HQ and I speak advisedly, taking a big cue from the 2000 campaign when Kufuor was the candidate. My concern is capacity building for party executives, the coordination of parliamentary campaigns and related matters.

In the absence of the presidential campaign team there seems to be a marked ruderlessness about the approach.  Our whole approach to these electoral reforms after NEC approved the Bawumia Report has been one bad case of party issue management. We even chose to hide the content of our proposals from the public. We were not able to convince the EC to swap Jake’s proposals submitted to the EC in a March 2014 for the Jan 2015 Bawumia Report. It has not been clear from leadership what the programame for these reforms is… But let us be assured that things won’t stay rudderless for much longer… for sure. By the way, you are free to share my post with any elected officer at HQ.”

Nana Akufo-Addo has never hidden his intention to sideline the national executives of the party as he campaigns for 2016.

The twice-defeated presidential candidate recently took his determination to render the elected National Chairman and General Secretary of the party redundant in the scheme of affairs, as far as running the 2016 electioneering campaign is concerned, several matches higher by composing a manifesto team on the blind side of Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyei Agyapong.

The manifesto team, which is top-heavy with such Akufo-Addo’s kinsmen as Gabby Assare Otchere Darko, Nana Asante Bediatuo,  Ken Ofori-Atta, also has the likes of IMANI Ghana’s Franklin Cudjoe and Occupy Ghana’s Ace Ankomah penciled in as members.

Akufo-Addo and his benchmen have declared NPP National Chairman, Paul Afoko, and the General Secretary, Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, as agents of the NDC who are bent on making sure that the perennial presidential candidate does not realize his long-cherished ambition of becoming president of Ghana, just as his father.

Indeed, a leaked recording that has been making the rounds in the media captures the Northern Regional Chairman of the NPP, Ndebugri, a known Akufo-Addo loyalist, clearly articulating the position that Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong cannot be trusted because they are agents of the NDC.

The composition of the manifesto team without the knowledge of the two leading chief operating officers of the party’s national’s secretariat was, therefore, seen as a confirmation of the theory that Akufo-Addo is bent on rendering Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong redundant in the campaign 2016 project.