Akufo-Addo not cause of NPP's problem – Gabby

A member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko, has said the party’s flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, is not to blame for the current divisions in the party.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsfile programme on Saturday December 12, 2015, Mr Akufo-Addo’s nephew said suggestions by Communication Minister Dr Edward Omane Boamah that his Uncle is to blame for the rumpus in Ghana’s biggest opposition party was untenable.

“It appears that their concern is about Akufo-Addo,” he told Samson Lardy Anyenini, host of Newsfile.

The founder of the Danquah Institute, a think tank, said: “Akufo-Addo doesn’t [decide] who becomes chairman of the party. He cannot hire and fire like the president does, if surrounded by his incompetent ministers, get that clear.”

“Secondly, this is not the first time Akufo-Addo has become a flagbearer. He lost to Kufour in 1998 and we did not see this kind of problem.

“He was a Minister, he served, and he has been a flagbearer… He even brought on board those who contested against him to work with him.

“The only things that have changed are those who are chairmen, general secretary, national organizer, but the flagbearer remains the same. So, if that same flagbearer was there in 2008 and 2012 and we had no difficulties, I don’t think it is fair to your common sense to see him as the problem.

The NPP has been dealing with intense factionalism following the indefinite suspension of national chairman Paul Afoko, General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong and second Vice-Chairman Sammy Crabbe.

The three, who are thought to belong to the Kufuor/Alan faction, were suspected to be working against the interests of the NPP and Mr Akufo-Addo.