A veteran Member of Parliament of the New Patriotic Party, armed with the needed courage, has drawn the attention of former President John Agyekum Kufuor to the effect that, the biggest opposition party is increasingly sliding into a fascist organization.
According to the MP, who was a former Minister in the Kufuor administration, the NPP under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s care has now become a party where dissenters are cajoled, intimidated, persecuted and/or crushed; adding that virtually everyone in the party has been cowed into submission.
The Member of Parliament (name withheld) made what many would consider as a taboo subject at a meeting called by the former president to interact with the minority MPs on the way forward to solving the party’s never-ending internal squabbles ahead of last week’s National Council Meeting that affirmed the suspension of Paul Afoko.
Sources at the meeting disclosed to The aL-hAJJ that “when Mr Kufuor invited the MPs to share their views on the happenings in our troubled party, none of them was willing to speak up. The old man (Mr Kufuor) had to prod them to feel free and talk before one among the senior ones mustered courage to make a statement.”
To Mr Kufuor’s astonishment, the source said, the veteran NPP MP told him in the face, “Mr President, our party is now fascist”
The MP, the source intimated, told the former President that, though some of them are not happy with happenings in the party, particularly leadership handling of the party’s affair, they are “afraid” to openly speak out.
“Blackmail, threats, intimidation; persecution, insults and even now killings are what have taken over our party so you dare not speak against the flag bearer. People have been promised appointments and some have been offered monies to tow a particular line so if you dare criticize the flag bearer or say anything against him, they will come after you or go and report you,” the NPP MP was reported to have told ex-president Kufuor and all assembled.
In a no hold barred submission at the meeting, the MP, who will bow out of the legislative house after next year elections, said “those who have openly or quietly criticized the flag bearer will not return to parliament after the 2016 elections. People were resourced and supported to defeat them at the primaries. This is the reality in our party today…we can no longer speak our minds. Even in parliament, when two MPs are chatting and they see a colleague approaching, they will quickly change the topic because they are not sure what he or she might go to say about them.”
The source revealed that at a point in his submission, the senior NPP member of parliament seemed possessed and “as if to say he was ready to pay the ultimate price for painting the right picture in the NPP, the legislator went on to say that the NPP is now being run by a dictator who will not accept anything other than blind loyalty and hero-worshiping”.
Startled by the frank submissions of the senior and respected NPP MP who is also a lawyer, Mr Kufuor was said to have assured the legislators that they (Elders) will soon see to it that the “situation was normalized”.
The veteran NPP MP’s view, The aL-hAJJ has gathered, is shared by many MPs and bigwigs of the Party, but who are reported scared to voice out, especially “considering the recent tactics he (Nana Addo) has adopted in ensuring that a vote of no confidence is passed or suspend anybody who dare disagree with him,” one senior member of the party told this paper after the meeting.
“All of us are not happy with how he (Nana) is managing the party, but we can’t come out because you will be destroyed or expelled from the party. It is no longer easy being a member of the NPP,” the party guru noted.
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