Breakaway moves in NDC

Chronicle intelligence has gathered that secret meetings are being held in Ashanti towards the formation of a new movement as a breakaway group within the NDC.

Initiators of the said new movement, who are probably taking a cue from the intended breakaway from the Progressive Alliance by the Egle Party, have already started negotiating with other political parties.

The ?Chronicle? has counted about three such secret meetings since the NDC held its National Delegates congress in December last year. Sources close to the emerging faction indicate that the movements have links in other regions.

A committee appointed at a meeting on 3 January this year at the regional secretariat is to see how best to thrash out differences between some executives and bring about peace.

Members of the committee include Benjamin Badu (Bantama constituency, chairman), Alhaji Gado Sulemana (Asokwa East), Oheneba Kyem (Atwima Kwanwoma), Daniel Ohyiaman (Mampong) and Alhaji Abubakar Okwei (Obuasi).

The rest are Alhaji Mallam Alla (Effiduase) and Alhaji Hamidu Adams (Kumawu). The maiden meeting of the committee last Monday 6 January with some supporters of defeated presidential aspirant, Dr Kwesi Botchwey, however, ended in a stalemate.

Both sides traded accusations and counter accusations. The Kwesi Botchwey sympathisers claim members of the committee are themselves part of the problem and called for an entirely neutral composition.

The committee should be made up of eminent and respected people entirely neutral and known to have any inclinations to the two contestants of the flagbearership, if the reconciliatory move is to succeed, the Botchwey following as one party suggested.

In another development, regional party chairman, Nti Fordjour, and his secretary, Sly Akakpovei, and a few party executives have since 19 December been conspicuously missing from the regional secretariat of the party.

The mentioned executives are said to be known sympathisers of Dr Botchwey who contested for the flagbearership against Prof Mills. ?Chronicle has gathered that a gang of women and macho men are constantly in waiting on daily basis, threatening to lynch party executives who rallied behind the former Finance Minister in his aspirations.

Menanwhile in a press release in Accra to formally announce the abrogation of the electoral pat with the NDC called the Progressive Alliance, the Egle Party has said ?the NDC suppressed our members any chance to advance.

Signed by party chairman Danny Ofori Atta, the release expressed profound disappointment over the ?shabby manner in which the NDC treated the Egle Party after the NDC won power.?

At the inception of the transition to civilian rule in 1992, the Egle Party and the National Convention Party (NCP) were formed as satellites of the Provision National Defence Council?s mainstream party, the NDC. Though all the three parties were supposed to be treated equally, the two smaller parties were marginalised in the sharing of posts.

With the withdrawal of the Egle Party all traces of the Progressive Alliance are now lost as the NCP long ceased to exist with most of its members drifting to the CPP while the remaining in Accra joined the NDC.

According to the Egle Party has disassociated itself from the NDC in order to file for nominations to contest the 2004 general and presidential elections.

Briefing newsmen in Accra when the party feted over 2000 at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle as part of its social activities during the Christmas festivities, Danny Ofori Atta said the Egle party was re-launched in order to capture power and provide the needs of Ghanaians.

?The rebirth of the Egle party marked milestone in Ghana?s political history,? Ofori Atta noted. According to him the party which supported the NDC in maintaining power in the 1996 presidential race, has come to provide a new lease of life to the destitute in society. The feasting of over 2000 ?destitute? is part of our programme.

Ofori Atta told journalists that the Egle party believes in a free market economy and commended the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for its efforts at straightening the private sector if the engine of growth and we will support such initiatives.

The chairman, however, identified some loopholes in the NPP administration and pledged that the Egle Party will use its ideologies of free market economy and trade liberalization to correct the anomalies in the country?s administration.

He questioned why Ghanaians cannot use their property such as houses and other buildings or investments as mortgages to apply for loans from international banks out side the country. In his view, Ghanaians should be able to raise capital from the stock market without any difficulty.