NDC Rather �Chased� Me - Dr. Obed Asamoah

Contrary to earlier held beliefs that the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) led by Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah is courting the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for a possible re-union, it has emerge that it is rather the ruling party which is seeking after the services of its former National Chairman. Dr. Asamoah on Tuesday revealed that the decision to come back to the NDC was reached after some NDC cadres wrote to him to put aside his differences with the ruling party and come back to his first political love. He again discounted claims that he is re-joining the NDC for opportunistic gains, and stressed that it is also because the party has improved its internal democracy, which was one of the missing ingredients prior to his leaving the NDC. The DFP was founded by some peeved members of the National Democratic Congress after the infamous Koforidua Congress in 2006. Dr. Asamoah left the NDC days after the Koforidua congress, with other senior members of the NDC including then acting General Secretary, Bede Ziedeng, and Frances Assiam, a former Women's Organiser. Life patron and founder of the DFP, Dr. Yao Obed Asamoah who served a term as NDC chairman and lost a second term bid at the 2006 congress, told Kwami Sefa Kayi in an interview on PeaceFM�s flagship programme, �Kokrokoo�, that he is smuggling his way back into the NDC because the party is in power, adding that talks with President Mills and the return of the DFP to their mother party have been fruitful so far.. �The decision to rejoin the NDC is a reaction to approaches that have been made to us to forget the past and have a rapprochement� and we believe that it is right to do so. The initial move came from the NDC itself; first of all it came from the cadres, they wrote to me and copied a similar letter to President Mills and former President Rawlings pleading with us to try and patch up our differences and work together for the glory of the party,� he stated. He also disclosed that he was also approached by the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Kofi Adams, and President Mills who urged him to let bygones be bygones. �I had approaches from Kofi Adams, he visited me in the house and he was making similar appeal and I had approaches from agents of Mills then I met Professor Mills where we decided to let bygones be bygones. So there was this effort for rapprochement and I believe one had to respond positively to such efforts,� he added. Commenting on publications by some pro-NDC newspapers � Daily Post and The Ghanaian Lens - accusing him of being a traitor because he ruled out Mills as being a president of this country during the 2008 election, the DFP Founder explained that �the comments I made in 2008 about President Mills and the NDC have been overtaken by events�. According to him, those comments were based on the widely held perception that President Mills was a poodle and could be easily controlled, but considering the fact that he (Mills) has been able to stand up to the Rawlingses in Sunyani, there is the need for one to revise that earlier held opinion. ��With regard to the comments I made in 2008, those comments have been overtaken by events�those comments were based on perceptions which were widely held that Professor Mills was a poodle�But we have seen what has happened, he�s been able to stand up to President Rawlings in Sunyani and I think one has to revise his note on that issue,� he said. He also rubbished claims that he will betray the NDC again by selling the governing party to the opposition NPP, pointing out that the NDC is not so na�ve as to allow itself to be sold down the drain to their political opponents. �I fell apart with some of the leadership of the NDC in the past, particularly President Rawlings because of issues of internal democracy and I believe that even in respect to that it is because of my actions that the NDC has improved upon its record. So even that was a positive thing and I think they should look at it in that way�I am not going to sell the NDC to the NPP and I don�t believe the NDC is so na�ve that they would tolerate that,� Dr Obed Asamoah added.