APC General Secretary Razak Kojo Opoku
With just nine days to elections, the All People’s Congress (APC), founded by Hassan Ayariga, has declared support for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, Razak Kojo Poku, General Secretary of the party, whose flag bearer, Hassan Ayariga, was disqualified from contesting the election, announced that “the National Executive Committee (NEC), the 10 Regional Executive Committees (RECs) and the majority of the parliamentary candidates of the All People’s Congress declare support for Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 7th December, 2016 general elections.”
Present at the event was Emmanuel Carl Bartel, running mate to Hassan Ayariga.
It comes ahead of a planned press conference to be addressed by Ayariga at the Aviation Social Centre in Accra today, where it is being speculated that he will declare support for incumbent President Mahama against the wish of the majority of the members of the party.
They said the decision became necessary considering the high level of incompetence, corruption, mismanagement of the economy resulting in high unemployment rate, killer taxes, collapse of the private sector businesses and high utility bills that had been witnessed in the country since the NDC came to power about eight years ago.
The General Secretary noted that “upon sober reflection, we strongly believe in the ‘one district, one factory,’ ‘one village, one dam,’ ‘one constituency, $1 million as doable and feasible policies,” urging Ghanaian voters to “vote against the NDC and reject John Mahama.”
“Only Nana Akufo-Addo can offer the Ghanaian a more credible, incorruptible and transformational leadership than all other presidential candidates contesting the 2016 general election.”
Even though the election is just around the corner, the APC stalwarts have indicated their intention to embark on an intensive campaign for the NPP.
According to them, “Enough is enough and the trending song is ‘change of incompetent John Mahama presidency and therefore members of the APC across the country should not only campaign, but also vote for Akufo-Addo and the NPP.
“We shall provide Ghanaians with interesting revelations within FIVE (5) Days to the 7th December, 2016 general election that shall cause the massive defeat of John Mahama and the NDC. We are equally entreating all APC members across Ghana to campaign vigorously and vote massively for Nana Akufo-Addo, the only credible presidential candidate for the 2016 presidential election. Nana Akufo-Addo’s agenda for job creation is the only solution to the socio-economic transformation of Ghana,” Mr Kojo Poku posited.
“Ghana has never had a history of a government being sworn in for three consecutive times, and I think Ghanaians must sit up to this and crash this syndicate of people who are all out as money grabbers,” Razak declared.
The executives also described their disqualified presidential candidate, Hassan Ayariga, as an appendage of the ruling NDC.
“However, we wish Hassan Ayariga (APC founder & leader) well for his personal decision to endorse John Mahama for the presidency on 28th November, 2016 at the Aviation Social Centre,” the APC executives said in the statement read to the media.
Ayariga Fires Back
Hours later, Mr Ayariga issued a statement announcing the suspension of Emmanuel Carl Bartels, his running mate and the General Secretary for what he described as “indiscipline and gross disrespect to the National Executive Committee and the general membership of APC nationwide.”
He urged all APC members and the general public to refrain from dealing with the two suspended individuals in relation to party matters till further notice.
By Solomon Ofori