Twum Boafo Calls On NDC To Boycott IEA Presidential Debate

The Chief Executive of the Free Zones Board, Kojo Twum Boafo has called on the leadership of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to boycott the Presidential Debate should the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) organise it ahead of the 2012 general elections. �The IEA has joined the ranks of the CDD; credibility deficit department (group); they are not neutral he stressed. The Ghana News Agency (GNA) on August 14, 2011, sourced a report they published to the website of the IEA headlined �IEA slams NPP for abuse of incumbency in Election 2008� criticizing the NPP for organising a flamboyant campaign to the disadvantage of the then opposition NDC in 2008. According to the report, the NPP�s presidential candidate Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo was awashed with resources out spending his other aspirants by a ratio of 30 to 1. But the policy think tank has denied having authored such report or released any such findings on its website. However, the GNA in a quick rebuttal was appalled by the IEA for removing the report from their website still stand by their story. Mr. Boakye Danquah Boadi in an interview with Joy FM noted on behave of GNA said they accessed the report from their website which has been there from March 21, 2009 and found it surprising that the IEA have denied existence of an such the report. He added that the GNA decided to serialize the report because they considered it as an important source material of public interest. Speaking on Asempa FM�s Ekosii Sen programme Wednesday, Kojo Twum Boafo who appeared angered by the conduct of IEA noted that the mischievous agenda of the policy think tank to favour one political party against the other has been exposed. �The jittery IEA who know whom they are withholding to, decided to make excuses by pulling the report from their website� he added. Mr. Twum Boafo said the policy think tank has been discredited by its conduct concerning a supposed report on abuse of incumbency by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2008 general elections as the then ruling party. The Free Zones Boss observed that given the way the World Wide Web (www) operates, when a document is posted and tagged by the search engines like Google , Ask or Yahoo, with the time and date so the source can only manage the content but cannot erase the tag. Kojo Twum Boafo who corroborated GNA�s claims that the report was indeed on the official website of IEA since March 21, 2009 was prepared to challenge any person from the institution who thinks otherwise. He jokingly urged the NPP to organise the 2012 Presidential Debate to be chaired by Jake Obetsebi Lamptey and the NDC would be glad to come. Twum Boafo urged the policy think tank to render an unqualified apology to the NPP and Ghanaians for publishing an inaccurate report. Meanwhile, Mike Oquaye Jnr. who represented the NPP on the panel said the intending boycott of the Presidential Debate to be organised by IEA by the ruling party to is just a gambit to prevent President J.E.A Mills from meeting his fierce rival Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.