Akufo-Addo retreats on anti-Afoko/Agyepong agenda

The flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has beaten a hasty retreat on his alleged support for party National Treasurer’s (Kwabena Abankwa-Yeboah) imposition of an illegal party membership registration platform on the NPP, the Republic Newspaper has gathered.

On Monday, the NPP announced that Akufo-Addo will on Wednesday launch the new membership platform and a website to be operated by PAYMANEX to register NPP members and raise donations from them.

However, the Republic Newspaper can confirm that a parallel platform has also been reportedly given the green light by the National Treasurer, Abankwa Yeboah (a party executive accused of doing the biddings of Akufo-Addo) to register NPP members and collect donations from them.

A contentious agreement has been intercepted by this paper titled, "SMS agreement between TextGenesys Limited and the office of the treasurer, New Patriotic Party was signed by Mr. Abankwa on the 30th Day of September 2014.

According to the controversial agreement, TextGenesys was to make available to the NPP shortcodes through which party members, sympathizers and supporters of the party were to subscribe to daily, weekly and monthly contributions/donations towards their party's revenue generation campaign.

"subscription to the service/short code shall be made through SMS-MO messages and contributions will be made through SMS-MT messages"

The system required members to donate as much as GHC 1.04 daily into the party coffers, but funds from these text-and-pay platform is yet to be accounted for by the National Treasurer who has been involved in several other controversial secret financial transactions using party funds.

TextGenesys is said to have been a special purpose vehicle specifically set up by Akufo-Addo’s friends to capture donated funds of NPP members. TextGenesys is said to be backed by a son of Yaw Osafo Marfo, former Finance Minister and an Akufo-Addo loyalists and one Aminu, a close pal of Akufo-Addo who was speculated to have been penned down by Akufo-Addo to become his deputy campaign manager.

Akufo-Addo’s sudden turnaround to support the PAYMANEX platform and his decision to be responsible for outdooring the system on Wednesday in Kumasi has raised eyebrows in the party, given rife speculations that he was fully in support of Mr. Abankwa-Yeboah when he single-handedly signed an MOU with TextGENESYS Ltd in 2014 to operate a similar system; an SMS text-and-pay service that required the active subscription of NPP members.

Akufo-Addo’s campaign has always been plagued by controversies over how campaign funds are handled. The situation has been linked to his penchant for trusting family and friends over party procedures during his campaign.

The top executives-General Secretary and National Chairman, proving to be non-conformists to Akufo-Addo’s family and friends tactics have had several face-off with his loyalists wanting to circumvent party guidelines.

New platform

After realizing the potential confusion arising out of an Akufo-Addo inspired membership registration platform, PAYMANEX, a company closely associated with the daughter of Mr. Kwamena Bartels, former Trade Minister, was given the authority by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to operate the new membership platform.

This paper gathered that based on the arrangement with PAYMANEX, the General Secretary Kwabena Agyei Agyapong and National Chairman Paul Afoko recently launched the NPP membership platform and website; a situation that has generated controversy in the party as loyalists of Akufo-Addo such as Bugri Naabu (the Northern Regional Chairman of the NPP) and Abankwa-Yeboah have described the launch as illegal.

“I want to say that that website is illegal and I would urge all party members and any sympathizer of the party not to participate in that website,” Mr. Abankwa-Yeboah was quoted immediately after the website was launched.

Already, the arrangement with TEXTGENESYS which was endorsed by the National Treasurer and an unknown individual (a certain Charles Lamptey ) is said to have generated substantial revenue for the party but these funds cannot be traced, the Republic Newspaper gathered.

The situation prompted the NEC and the Chairman of the NPP Finance Committee, Kwadwo Mpianim to meet early August 2015 to address the anomalies caused by the parallel membership registration. After the meeting, the members who met gave the authority to General Secretary Kwabena Agyapong to institute legal action against whoever was behind the parallel membership registration.

“ Members attention was drawn to a new registration and issuance of membership cards going on in the country.

The National Chairman showed members one such membership cards. Both the National Chairman and the General Secretary indicated that they didn’t initiate it [the secret membership registration], neither did they have knowledge as to who was doing it. All what they hear is that it was initiated by the National Treasurer,” Kwadwo Mpianim wrote in a letter dated August 18, 2015 to the NEC.

“If the registration and issuance of cards are not being done by the National Treasurer or continue after this resolution, the General Secretary should take immediate action, including legal action, to stop the unauthorized registration,” the Chairman of the Finance Committee announced.

Since he became party flagbearer, Akufo-Addo has been accused of superintending parallel authorities within the party for his own interest and also because of his reported suspicion of some members of the top hierarchy of the party.

This penchant for supporting his loyalists to circumvent laid-down procedures in the party has resulted in several scandals, including the infamous secret account at Ecobank which held over GHC 5 million party funds without the knowledge of the General Secretary and National Chairman. Some funds from this secret account were alleged to have been used to fund Akufo-Addo’s recent three-week tour of the United Kingdom.

Also, Akufo-Addo’s tenure as flagbearer has seen his cousin and campaign financier Ken Ofori-Atta allegedly use party letterheads to apply for an over GHC 2 million overdraft from Prudential Bank without the knowledge of party hierarchy.

Currently, accounting for expenditure on the just concluded Talensi by-elections have become problematic as party members trade different figures from that of the National Treasurer.