Bismarck Tawiah Boateng
There is clear apprehension among some elements of the Mahama-led ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the possibility of opposition leader Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo becoming president.
A number of leading members of the NDC are beginning to run for cover because they believe strongly that Nana Akufo-Addo is capable of putting them in jail.
These NDC bigwigs go round the country polluting the minds of some sections of the public about Nana Akufo-Addo without telling them the real crimes they might have committed against the state which could land them in trouble.
The latest to express such apprehension is NDC Eastern Regional Chairman, Bismarck Tawiah Boateng, who said in Akropong recently that the NPP leader – who is noted for his incorruptible lifestyle – will put some of them in jail if he wins power.
“When Akufo-Addo was the Attorney General during the Kufuor regime, all he could offer the country was to ensure that many of our leaders were put in jail,” he told a fractured NDC group.
“All he could do for Ghana was that Ibrahim Adam was thrown into jail. Kwame Peprah went into jail. Sipa Yankey was jailed. Atta Mills’ wife should go to counterback. E.T. Mensah should go to jail; (E.T. was never jailed). That is what he is remembered for as an AG,” Tawiah Boateng claimed in a shaky voice.
He also claimed, “The only thing we can remember him for as Foreign Minister is the killing of 44 Ghanaians in the Gambia and he not taking any action.
“His record is there and so if Akufo-Addo says he is coming to continue from where Kufuor left off then I am telling you that our ministers, DCEs, appointees and board members should prepare themselves for jail because he is capable of repeating what he did when they had power, once he becomes the president.”
He advised his party members to unite and not allow envy to take over their decisions as the party gears up for the December 7 general election saying, “If we don’t exercise caution and decide that because of what somebody has done against us we are going to vote out that person and kill the party, we will live to regret our actions.
“We should ponder over it and reflect on how they (NPP government) jailed some of our leaders.”
Sometime in April, Dzifa Attivor, who resigned as Minister of Transport following the infamous GH¢3.6 million bus branding saga, at an NDC public rally at Aflao in the Ketu South Constituency, urged the people of the Volta Region not to vote for the NPP in the December election because the NPP has a track record of putting Ewes (people from the region) in jail.
She said that the Kufuor administration specifically jailed former NDC appointees who are from the region and went on to mention some of them as Dan Abodakpi and the late Victor Selormey before saying that if the NPP wins the December election, it will repeat the same thing by jailing only Ewes, including herself.
“When the NPP came to power in 2001, a lot of our people were sent to prison; Victor Selormey, Dan Abordakpi and so on, were imprisoned. Was it because no other persons committed crime in Ghana? But it was only Ewes that they jailed…. I want to entreat you not to do anything for Fifi Kwetey and I to go to prison. It lies with you all to ensure that no Ewe person goes to prison. So I am pleading with you to work hard and deliver the 120,000 votes target for the party in the constituency,” she was quoted as saying.
Dzifa Attivor’s comment sparked heated political debate, with some opinion leaders and personalities condemning her unreservedly.
By William Yaw Owusu