Some National Executive members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), especially supporters of the former President John Dramani Mahama feel threatened over decision of former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor refusal to handover his initiative, Ahotɔ Project for them to manage.
The supporters of the 2020 Presidential Candidate of the NDC expressed unhappiness that Dr. Duffuor is still spearheading the project himself after the its recent launch by the party.
According to them, they have been betrayed by Dr. Duffuor in luring them to launch the project in the name of NDC.
General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah took a swipe at Dr. Duffuor for not allowing the party to implement the Ahoto Project initiative ror him.
He accused the former Finance Minister of spearheading the Ahotɔ project for his personal benefit.
Speaking in an interview with the media, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah said “I’ve been compelled to address the press on this Ahoto project because I believe we’ve come far and we shouldn’t be addressing each other through the media. But I am compell in the interest of the party to put these things out.
“We just picked information from Kumasi that Dr. Duffuor is going to distribute some equipment to our constituencies under the Ahotɔ Project and we feel very betrayed. It is not a bad thing if a former minister want to support the party in anyway but there is a process that you go through.
“We actually heard about this project for the first time when it was supposed to have been launched in Ashaiman. So we felt that everything about the launching of the project was problematic. So we invited Dr. Duffuor and his followers and we sat down because we thought that we could resolve whatever was wrong with the project as it has been designed so we all chart the same path and then make sure we receive the donation and process the donation through our proper party channels of receiving donations. We sat and held series of meetings and thought we had agreed on a procedure.
“Another procedure is that if you want to donate ti NDC and after the donation you don’t have a hand in how the donation will be used. In fact he is not the first person to donate to this party.
He therefore threatened to disassociate the party from the project if the former governor of Bank of Ghana continue to execute the project on his own.
According to him, “… The information we are picking now is that and we’ve been written to that there is going to be an NGO who is going to manage the Project and we strongly object to that thing and we feels that we’ve been misled in launching and receiving the donation and assured our party that it is the party that is going to handle it. If Dr. Duffuor intends to make this donation to the party a genuine donation then he should be prepare to pass through the proper channels otherwise he has his equipment and whatever is doing with the equipment is not going to be in the name of the NDC.”
However, the camp of Dr. Duffuor are yet to respond to the allegation.
One of a grassroots party empowerment and a self-financing project dubbed the ‘Ahotɔ’ Project for the opposition is the initiative of Dr. Duffuor donating canopies public addressing system, chairs among others for the party to be used as a business in generating revenue for running of the party at the grassroot level.
In a project implementation plan outlined at the launch of the Ahotɔ Project is that the main aim of this flagship grassroots party support project is geared towards setting up all the 275 constituencies with micro-businesses in order to create the much needed cash flow for the day-to-day running of the NDC party at the grassroots level.
By Vincent Kubi