If Afoko And Agyepong Fight Back, The Clashes Will Be �Dirty� and �Crude� - Kweku Baako

Veteran journalist Kweku Baako Jnr says any plan to oust NPP’s embattled national chairman, Paul Afoko and General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong won’t solve the internal party wrangling if they party wants to win power in 2016.

Instead of removing them, the party should rather work to neutralize any possible threat posed by the two in jeopardizing the party’s chances of winning the 2016 general elections, the managing editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has advised.

He called this strategy, a policy of “containment” and “progressive neutralization”.

Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong have been under unprecedented pressure to step aside or resign as internal party turmoil grabs national attention.

Some perceive that the troubled two do not have the best interest of the party at heart. Even more damaging, is the perception that they are leading efforts to frustrate their own party's flagbearer from winning 2016 presidential elections.

The flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo organised a press conference Friday and demanded a ceasefire from all sides in the conflict. He also directed that the embattled duo should be allowed to enter the party headquarters to carry on with their official duties.

Discussing the party in crisis, Kweku Baako pointed out that with elections about 18 months away “it is in enlightened self-interest of the party that it does not create distractions.”

He also condemned an underground movement to collect signatures of party members as part of a strategy to use party’s "rigorous" constitutional process to remove Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong.

Kweku Baako believes that if the embattled two decide to fight back, the clashes will be “dirty” and “crude”.

To avert the possibility of dampening the morale of the party’s 2016 campaign machine, Kweku Baako advised “the party should not be proceeding towards the exclusion of the two gentlemen”.

“I advocate a policy of containment and progressive neutralization of whatever mischief they perceive,” he stressed.

Nonetheless, Kweku Baako says it is difficult for him to imagine Afoko and Agyepong desiring opposition when power is there for the taking. The veteran journalist called on anti-Afoko and anti-Agyepong plots to be abandoned in the spirit of the flagbearer’s call for peace.

He also called on the party to “name and shame” elements who breach the flagbearer’s call for ceasefire.

In worse breaches, Baako called for dissenting members to be suspended or expelled.