Asiedu Nketia replies Ben Ephson...

Three-time General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, known better by his alias ‘General Mosquito,’ has told Kafui Dey, host of Morning Starr that the party’s delegates retained him for the third time because of his arrogance.

“I have heard somebody in the studio talking about my pomposity and other things, yes the people voted for me for that pomposity,” Mr Nketia said Monday, on Starr 103.5FM.

The former Legislator was making reference to a comment by pollster Ben Ephson that his (Mosquito's) pre-congress threat to pull out of the race if the delegates showed support for disloyal candidates, smacked of arrogance.

According to Ephson, even though Mr Nketia retained his position with 2,685 votes in Saturday’s Congress held at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, the 666 votes garnered by his only contender, Ishaq Abdula Farrakhan, a virtually unknown underdog, is an indication of the anger of some of the delegates with Mosquito’s growing arrogance.

The Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper warned Nketia that if the influence of even the Founder of the NDC Jerry John Rawlings has waned within the party over the years, then putting on an arrogant frock could undo him (Mosquito) in the future.

However, Nketia said: “If indeed I was pompous, then it means the people wanted a pompous General Secretary, because the fact of the matter is that I did not campaign, I did not even do a poster, I didn’t do anything and I didn’t have time to even touch base with majority of the delegates because of this court case issue and the fact that I was planning congress and so on.”

“I did indicate that those who didn’t know the face of Asiedu Nketia may vote against me because I don’t think it is proper for me now to be making posters, billboards and all that expenses, in the first case I don’t have all that money, in the second place I don’t consider it necessary.”