‘I won't be worried seeing Okyehene in NPP T-shirt’ – Mosquito

The General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said he will not be perturbed if Okyehene Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin II throws his weight behind the flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

According to him, it is only natural for the Okyehene to exhibit such an act since he has very close ties with Nana Akufo-Addo, who is his subject.

Mr Nketia, who was a guest on Class91.3fm’s Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday 13 April 2016, told the host, Ekow Mensah-Shalders, that: “If I were Okyehene and Nana Addo is not only my subject but a relative and he wants to be president, I will be seen as the devil incarnate if I do not do anything to support him and I am sure all the political leaders expect their chiefs to support them.”

“Why not? It is natural. I do not fault Okyehene in doing that. Even if I see him in an NPP T-shirt, I will not be worried because it is Ghanaian for us to see him doing something [in support of his own],” he stressed.

President John Mahama is currently on the second leg of his ‘Accounting to the People Tour’, which began on Tuesday April 12, 2016, in the Eastern Region.

There have been speculations that the president will not visit the Okyehene’s Palace following a feud between the traditional ruler and the NDC’s Eastern Regional Chairman, Bismark Tawiah Boateng and Regional Youth Organiser Apau Haruna Owiredu.

The two were banned from stepping foot in the Okyehene’s palace (Ofori Panin Fie) for comments the traditional council deemed disrespectful and insulting to the paramount chief over the past three years.

But the General Secretary has said the president will visit when he gets the opportunity because the “Okyehene has never said it anywhere that the president should not visit him”.

He said the “problem between Okyehene and two of our people is being handled” behind the scenes to find an amicable solution to the matter.

“Our position as leadership of the party is that chiefs do not have a role to play in politics, so we should not antagonise them. We are trying to build bridges between us and the Okyehene,” he explained.