THE FUNCTIONAL Executive Committee of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has reportedly held a closed-door crunch meeting with the Council of Elders to deal with the internal wrangling that has beset the party.
The move, DAILY GUIDE, understands, became necessary to save the party – which woefully lost the 2016 elections to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) – from tearing apart, as its members, seemingly divided into two factions, continue to attack one another like wild dogs.
It was also used to brief the Council of Elders, chaired by former president and NDC founder, Jerry John Rawlings, about the Kwesi Botchwey report. The latter was at the meeting himself as well as other party stalwarts.
Mr Rawlings has been under attacks by some members of his own party for openly criticising the leadership over alleged thievery of state and party funds..
He sat away from Ato Ahwoi, a senior member of the party, who once served as power minister in his (Rawlings) government, only to be seen later as ‘enemies.’
The meeting followed the recent vituperations by former Deputy Chief of Staff under the erstwhile President John Mahama administration, Valerie Sawyerr, against ex-President Rawlings and the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu.
It would be recalled that Ms. Sawyerr, in what appeared to be an open letter, strongly condemned the former president and Mr. Amidu for constantly labeling the NDC’s hierarchy as corrupt.
“They say he booms, I say he buzzes… like an agitated mosquito… looking for his next victim. Is he trying to say that his reign was unblemished or that his twin brother’s (President Akufo-Addo’s) reign is unsullied? Really?” Valerie quizzed in the letter.
She expressed dissatisfaction with the seeming silence of Mr. Rawlings regarding what she termed “the wrongs being committed by President Akufo-Addo’s administration.”
She wondered why Mr Rawlings had remained silent on a number of issues, including the controversial $2.25 billion government bond and the 5 million litres of contaminated fuel.
Her comments had generated heated debate in the opposition party, seemingly creating Mahama and Rawlings camps.
Ms. Sawyerr received support from some persons believed to be in the Mahama camp, while a pressure group affiliated to the NDC and sympathetic to Mr. Rawlings, has joined the fray to call for her (Valerie’s) immediate dismissal from the political grouping.
Mr. Amidu had also fired back at Ms. Sawyerr, describing the write-up in which she attacked him and Mr. Rawlings as “incoherent, disjointed and drunken-like diatribes.”
He said the sudden attacks on his person and that of former President Jerry John Rawlings were coming from people in the ‘Mahama faction.’
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