I’m no stooge of NDC - Hassan Ayariga

The Presidential candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga has debunked claims that he is a puppet of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The APC nominee earlier this week launched scathing attacks on the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo saying he [Akufo-Addo] lacks the ability to manage Ghana.

“So, if they go round telling Ghanaians [that] Ghana is in crisis and Ghana has become a difficult place for us to live and that we need a change, yes, let’s accept and believe that we need change but that change will not be a change from the NDC to any of them because if Ghana is in crisis, these people are part of the problem why Ghana is in crisis today, because they were given the opportunity to serve and have served,” Ayariga said in an earlier interview this week.

His criticism of the NPP nominee infuriated members of the NPP fraternity—branding him [Ayariga] as a sidekick of the governing NDC.

But, Ayariga disagreed with the labeling of him as a stooge of the NDC.

“Let’s not talk as if Ayariga is talking for the NDC or the NPP. I talk for myself. I’m not talking for anybody. Nobody can buy my conscience, Nobody" he emphatically stated Wednesday on Class FM in reactions to statements that he is a pawn of the NDC.

Boasting of his financial prowess, he said he is beyond being lured into doing the bidding of the NDC stating that “I’ve achieved a lot for myself. If I tell you where I’m coming from and today where I am [as a] man! I’m a millennium man.”

Ayariga added that he is being criticized because people don’t want to hear the truth. According to him, the time is ripe to lay facts bare and that will help electorates make the best choices.

He still maintained that the NPP nominee is not worthy to be elected the president of Ghana.

In a light swipe at Akufo-Addo, Ayariga said “I’m not begging to be president.”

“I’ll never go anywhere and say I beg you try me. If you want try me and if you don't want reject. I am who I am,” he added.

He continued “If they are saying Nana is good, go and look at NPP and tell me whether the NPP machinery is even good. People who are fighting themselves, killing themselves, pouring acid on themselves.

"You think that is the party for people to follow? leadership by example. Incompetence is in the house of the NPP. It is not anywhere."