Victor Smith
Ghana’s former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Victor Emmanuel Smith, has come under attack from members of the pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) pressure group, Action Movement.
The group has criticized Mr. Smith for allegedly accusing the NDC’s founder, Jerry John Rawlings, of partly causing the party’s humiliating defeat in the 2016 general elections.
It would be recalled that the former High Commissioner, in an interview with Okay Fm recently, accused his former boss of not considering the interests of the party, adding that the leader did things, which affected the party’s chances in the 2016 general elections.
But the group, at a press conference on Wednesday in Accra, wondered how a character like Victor Smith, who was rejected by constituents in the Abuakwa North constituency in the 2016 parliamentary election, could attack the person of former President Rawlings.
“Victor Smith should stop the shameful and disgraceful life he is leading; Victor cannot even redeem his constituency due to his arrogance and life full of dishonesty. Victor, because of your crocked ways the NDC failed to make progress in Abuakwa North Constituency,” the group said.
Leader of Action Movement, Kodzo Hamenya, in an address on behalf of the group, said Ambassador Victor Smith’s was seeking undeserved attention.
“Victor Smith should stop this nonsense; he’s just seeking attention. The founder is a serious minded personality; he does not have time for attention seekers,” he said.
According to the group, such conduct should not be entertained by all well-meaning members of the NDC and that it should be treated with the contempt it deserves.
Causes
Instead, the group said the party’s defeat was due to the actions and inactions of serving executives of the party, some of which reportedly bordered on corruption, neglect of the party’s grassroots and gross disrespect for party’s structures and hierarchy.In the view of the group, the reasons for the NDC’s defeat in 2016 were numerous and that former President Rawlings had no role to play in that regard.
“It is amazing how ineffective our national executives were in the 2016 election, whilst the NPP won the election without a National Chairman and with an acting general secretary, our national executives performed woefully and they keep reducing our strength by sacking hardworking executives just because they are speaking the truth,” the group indicated.
By Melvin Tarlue & Rosemary Twum