Alan 'Cash' paid ?20million/hour for plane

NPP Congress in Jeopardy!

Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, the debonair and suave NPP Presidential aspirant has uncharacteristically lost his cool. He told thousands of FM listeners yesterday that he will not accept the "Animal Farm situation" which has crept into the lead up to next week's delegates congress.

It was a blistering and uncompromising attack from this NPP stalwart. A clear sign that the NPP's transition strategy has run into trouble. An obviously angry Hackman was referring to the disruption of his campaign at Wa by another aspirant, Mr. Alan Kyerematen.

In an interview with local radio stations in Accra yesterday, the mild mannered front bencher from New Juaben said he called NPP National Chairman, Mr. Mac Manu and told him that "the situation whereby some of the aspirants are treated differently from others would bring confusion in the race We should all play by the rules of the game and be treated even, especially if the Air Force plane is available for renting, they should let us know."

By the campaign rules of the party, any aspirant who wants to campaign at a constituency must first notify the regional executives, but Mr. Alan Kyerematen is said to have gone to Wa with an Air Force plane (Air Force Fokker 27 aircraft, G520) without such notification.

Mr. Owusu Agyeman explained that, "before you go to any constituency you must inform the regional executives, so I did that and I was given the go ahead to come. So when Alan came and the people started moving from the hotel that we were meeting, I asked them if they knew anything about it and they said no. They said that is how he is, he comes without their knowledge."

Though he said he had no qualms about the use of the Air Force plane by Mr. Alan Kyerematen, he said, "I have been a member of the Armed Forces Council before, and it would be very dangerous that any body who gets money is allowed to hire the Air Force plane It is not done anywhere"

He told his radio audience: "I am not complaining about him paying for the plane, but why did he come and disrupt my campaign. I have traveled by road from Koforidua to Wa and you can imagine the risk on the road. Why?"

All the people that were in his hotel, he said, left and went to Alan, so I was left with a small group of people.

Hackman Owusu-Agyemang said he warned the sizeable number of delegates against allowing the use of cash to pollute their political conscience.

He said that he may not have, for example, the ?5 million that was given to each of them, but reminded them that he was among the very few financiers who supported them during the harsh days of opposition.

Alan Kyeremanten's entry into the race has been dogged by controversy ever since people read the president's lips and concluded that it was Alan he was supporting even though he had said he would not make his support public. Alan himself took off at a gallop lavishing huge amounts of money wherever he went earning him the sobriquet of Alan Cash. In what many people described as sheer arrogance, he adopted the word "Cash" in his campaign slogan, showing no embarrassment and remorse at all. More or less thrusting his middle finger at his critics, his campaign revolved around the message: Jobs for the people, Cash for the people.

But the sore point for the other aspirants has been the undisguised intimidation adopted by Regional Ministers, Municipal Chief Executives and District Chief Executives to railroad delegates to vote for Alan with the promise of contracts, cash donations and other inducements in kind. Many of the aspirants have in one way or the other complained bitterly in public and in private about how Alan Kyeremanten has become the one divisive element now threatening the cohesion of the ruling party. Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyeman's very public disagreement yesterday should convince even the most ardent optimist that the NPP is heading for troubled waters.

The Air Force plane used by Alan Cash costs almost ?20million an hour.