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The National Chairman of the minority New Patriotic Party, Peter Mac Manu has hit back at President John Evans Atta Mills for allegedly claiming that the NPP had been making sanctimonious, self-serving effusions and statements. Mac Manu told the New Crusading Guide in an interview, �We have a responsibility to criticize the ruling party when we feel they are not on the right path and we will continue to criticize them constructively�. He charged Mills and his team to stop the blame game and initiate strategies that would help promote economic growth. �We have a duty to remind them of their responsibility because at the end of their four-year term Ghanaians will evaluate their performance and judge them. NPP also has a duty to straighten certain things of the NDC to help move the country forward�. Reacting to the accusation leveled against the NPP that the party�s failure to attend National Delegates� Congress of the NDC held in the Northern Regional capital of Tamale at the weekend, Mac Manu said the NPP indeed received a letter of invitation from the NDC to attend and deliver a fraternal message at the congress. He said when the letter was received, a meeting was held and it was decided that the Northern Regional Chairman of the NPP, his deputy and some executives be assigned to go and represent the party. Mac Manu explained that the Northern Regional Chairman and his executives went to the congress ground in Tamale on Saturday to represent the party and to read their fraternal message which was prepared in Accra by the top hierarchy of the party but were denied access to the ground by the security personnel on the grounds that they had no accreditation. Mr. Mac Manu said when he was informed about the issue, he quickly called the General Secretary of the NDC Johnson Asiedu Nketia, to communicate it to him hoping something could be done to make the place accessible to the representatives. �It�s so unfortunate that several attempts made to get Asiedu Nketia to rectify the problem proved futile since he might have been busy doing something else. �So the long and short of it is that our people were not allowed to the congress grounds because they had no accreditation, even though they showed their NPP party cards. This was an oversight between the NPP and the NDC and I have again instructed the Regional Chairman to send our apology to them for the mishap,� he said. The NPP National Chairman urged the NDC and the other political parties to endeavor to attach accreditation letters to all invitation letters sent to them to prevent such problems from occurring in the future. In a related development, the General Secretary of the NPP Nana Ohene Ntow, has congratulated the NDC on the successful of its congress. He said the success indicated that the party�s democracy was growing. The congress saw the election of both pro-Rawlings and pro-Mills loyalists to man the affairs of the party for the next four years. Nana Konadu Agyeman, Wife of former President Rawlings, won the first vice Chairmanship position by about 1,433 out of 1900 voters. Other visible Rawlings loyalists such as Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Alhaji Hudu Yahaya, and Alhaji Saeed Sinare, won the second vice-chair position. Kofi Poturphy and Danny Annan also won the remaining two vice Chairmanship slots to complete a set of six vice-chair officials. Dr. Kwabena Adjei and Johnson Asiedu Nketia (alias �General Mosquito�) retained their National Chairman and General Secretary positions respectively. According to Nana Ohene Ntow, the NDC should not begrudge anyone for expressing misgivings ahead of the congress because such people had enough grounds to do, so judging from the history of the party. Asked whether he and the NPP were disappointed that things went well for their opponents during the congress, Nan Ohene Ntow retorted, �Why should we be?� He added that one could not wish his political opponent got ill all the time. The NPP General Secretary said he had earlier registered his solidarity with the NDC by calling Mr. Asiedu Nketia prior to the congress to wish him well and again called to congratulate him upon retaining his position.