Akufo-Addo angry at Wontumi

Call it bad luck, nemesis or naivety but whatever it is the Ashanti regional Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Mr. Bernard Antwi Boasiako, is now under very serious pressure from the top hierarchy of his party to ‘put things in order’ in the region.

Chairman Wontumi, as he is popularly called, has now, according to grapevine sources, lost favor with the Nana Addo camp.

And this, Today understands, has caused him to suffer insomnia for the past few months.

What has aggravated his already bad situation, Today further gathered, was when his interest in the Manhyia North constituency polling station primary caused so much brouhaha that the media in Ghana mostly focused on his alleged hiring of macho men to assault some delegates in the constituency than the flag-bearer’s true State of the Nation’s address.

Our source at the Ashanti regional head office of the party told this reporter that ‘the old man (referring to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) has not been happy with that guy at all,’ adding that ‘he even called him last week and gave it to him paah.’

“Nana Addo called Wontumi and told him plainly that he is a bad chairman because the bad press from his brutality on some delegates of Manhyia North has covered his true state of the nation’s address”. The source recounted to this reporter in a conversation.

Another executive at the regional office who pleaded anonymity after corroborating the phone call from Nana Addo to Wontumi said it was true the flag bearer was not happy with the chairman over the Manhyia North constituency brouhaha, but maintained it was a normal chat between the Flag bearer and the chairman.

Our sources noted that the Ashanti regional chairman lost favour with the flag bearer when he organized the shambolic fund raising ceremony in Kumasi which brought a lot of embarrassment to the party.

“Even that one, he hasn’t been able to win the old man back, then he went to let macho men beat delegates again to cover the true state of the nation address, that one got Nana damn angry,” the source noted.

However attempts to get him to confirm or deny the information proved futile as several calls to his MTN number from this reporter ere unanswered. A text message was sent to that same number but it was also ignored.

The regional chairman has come under strong criticism from well meaning members of their party for his open show of bias against the sitting Member of Parliament of Manhyia North constituency in their upcoming parliamentary primaries.

A group of delegates from the constituency petitioned the Acting General Secretary of the party Mr. John Boadu of his ‘misconducts’ and he assured of ensuring free and fair elections come Sunday, March 20th 2016.

The group stated among other things in their petition that he had formed a committee chaired by Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah, and without any National Executive representation as stated in their party’s constitution.

He also unilaterally chose a venue outside their constituency for the primaries when there were several venues within the constituency where they could hold the elections.