Enraged NDC Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle, Nii Armah Ashittey has predicted that the governing party risk losing the parliamentary seat it snatched from the New Patriotic Party in the 2008 elections in the November 7 polls if it does not do the right thing.
According to him attempts by some bigwigs of the ruling party to foist daughter of former President Rawlings, Dr Zanetor Rawlings on the constituency could spell doom for the NDC in the impending election.
Mr Ashittey, who was defeated at the NDC Kolttey Korle primaries, maintained that Dr Zanetor was not qualified to contest the primaries because she was not a registered voter as the party’s rules stipulate.
He has since filed a case at the High Court seeking to stop the NDC founder’s daughter from holding herself as parliamentary candidate for the November election.
Many Ghanaians including Central Regional Chairman of the ruling NDC, Barnard Allotey Jacobs have chastised Ashittey for being ungrateful and biting the fingers that once fed him.
“Ashietey Armah, you had the chance to be DCE in Tema for 8 years under Rawlings and if it’s time for Rawlings’ daughter to serve in the party you want to bring her down,” an incensed Allotey Jacobs stated on on Adom TV’s Badwam.
But Mr Ashittey has vehemently rejected the claim of paying party founder, Jerry John Rawlings, with the wrong coin for challenging the latter’s daughter’s legibility to contest the November 7 election in court.
According to the defeated NDC parliamentary candidate aspirant, contrary to claims he owes a depth of gratitude to the former president for his success in life; he was a self-made man until Mr Rawlings persuaded him to serve in his government.
Responding to claims of his ingratitude to former President John Rawlings who offered him his first political appointment, Ashittey furiously said on Joy News "…today somebody can come and tell me I should show gratitude to Jerry Rawlings… for what? Why should I? I served Ghana, I didn't serve Jerry Rawlings.”
"In any case when I was coming into politics, I was not looking for jobs. I was doing well in my job. I never stayed in this country for two months without going abroad. What are they talking about? They should go and ask Jerry Rawlings whether I owe him any favour. I do not owe him any favor," he added.
The Klottey Korle MP, who lost the party’s November 21, 2015 primaries to daughter of ex-President Rawlings, Dr Zanetor Rawlings, is challenging her eligibility in court, insisting that the elected parliamentary candidate was not qualified to contest the election because she was not a registered voter.
The Klottey Korle MP fumed “nobody should think that somebody did me a favour. In 2000, I single-handedly sponsored NDC from opposition to government. Have they forgotten so soon?”
“All so soon people have forgotten what I did? People who think I’m an errand boy should revise their notes,” he stated.
Mr. Ashietey Armah indicated that he was a self-made man when he was begged by the erstwhile Rawlings regime to take up the position of Tema mayor.
“I was the President of Ghana Forex Bureau Association when I was approached by Rawlings. I was virtually begged into accepting to be mayor of Tema and my witnesses including Nana Konadu and Sherry Ayittey are still alive,” he stressed.
Nii Armah Ashittey also accused the party leadership at the national level of manipulating events to have Dr Zanetor Rawlings win the primaries at all cost.
But a Deputy General Secretary Koku Anyidoho would not discuss the merit of the parliamentary primaries except to say the allegations by Ashittey were unfounded.
He said the party went through due process in conducting the primaries and wondered why Ashittey will accuse them.
"We had no hand in any primaries," he said, adding during the vetting of Dr Zanetor Rawlings the case about whether the eventual winner was a registered voter never came up.
"It was not a petition that was brought by anybody; it was not a petition that was brought by the constituency executives; it was not a petition that was brought by any of the contestants and so we through the voting process. As it is, there are legal processes that allow the young lady subsequently to get her name on the register," Anyidoho stated
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