A pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) group, Save NPP Now, has repeated its call for the flag bearer of the party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to step down from his position to save the party from another humiliating defeat in the upcoming 2016 general election.
The Director of Communications of the group, Mr Baah Acheamfour, at a press conference in Accra yesterday described the party under the leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo as a “sad state”.
He said the party had reached a point where dissenting party members were mercilessly terrorised by thugs who were mostly members of an “intolerant military wing” brought into the fold of the party by the flag bearer. “Today, the philosophy and character of the NPP has been defined by ruthless violence, pomposity and chaos... supervised and sanctioned by Nana Akufo-Addo himself and this has gone on well over one-and-a-half years,” he said.
Leadership and electoral fortunes
In a speech that touched on leadership and electoral fortunes, Mr Acheamfour said the party had got to a point where it was no longer possible to freely express one’s grievances without being intimidated, threatened or assaulted.
He said Nana Akufo-Addo had put himself beyond reproach and could not be criticised. Such a behaviour,he claimed, was a frightening situation which clearly endangered “our freedoms as members of the NPP and Ghanaians in general”.
Additionally, he said the party had had its electoral fortunes dwindled since Nana Akufo-Addo took over the leadership in 2008.
He cited that in the 2008 elections, Akufo-Addo garnered 49.7 per cent of the valid votes cast, while in the 2012 elections, he managed to poll 47.7 per cent of the votes.
Again, he said the NPP under Akufo-Addo polled a total of 72.5 per cent of the votes in the Ashanti Region, while he dropped to 70.8 per cent in the 2012 elections.
“What makes this situation worse is that our biggest opponent, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has consistently improved in our stronghold since 2008. The NDC obtained 26 per cent of the votes in Ashanti Region in the 2008 elections and improved to 28.3 per cent in the 2012 elections,” he said.
Injustice and abuse of power
Mr Acheamfour said although the party was advocating a credible voters register, the group was currently disappointed that Nana Akufo Addo’s hands were not clean in the fight for a credible register, because “while it is advocating a credible register externally, it is practising the reverse internally”.
He said there had been so much underhand dealings with the party’s voters register in the recent parliamentary primaries conducted across the country, citing cases of electoral fraud in some constituencies such as Ablekuma West, Klottey Korle, Tema West and Sunyani among other places.
In the case of Ablekuma West, Mr Acheamfour said Nana Akufo-Addo, at a National Executive Committee meeting, unilaterally accepted and subsequently directed the use of a dubious second album compiled by Mrs Ursula Owusu, who was an aspirant, to give her an undue advantage over her competitors.
He said the party, under the chairmanship of Mr Freddy Blay, folded its arms and watched the elections rigged in favour of Mrs Owusu “as a birthday present for Nana Akufo-Addo”.
“Till date, the Manhyia North primary is hanging because the constituents have resolved to protect their interest and choice and never allow the Ablekuma Central method to be used in their constituency,” he added.
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