JJ stops looming onslaught on Mahama, NDC

But for the intervention of former President, Jerry John Rawlings, the defunct Friends of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings (FONKAR) would have firmed up on discussions last Saturday how to kick start bashing the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government.

Credible information gathered by The aL-hAJJ indicates that the moribund group, at its meeting last Saturday at Krobo Odumase in the Eastern region, passed a resolution to heed to Mr. Rawlings’s advice to them to hold their fire and give the new NDC national executives some time to put things in order in the ruling party.

Following the The aL-hAJJ’s Tuesday, May 19, 2015 publication which revealed how certain bigwigs in the governing party are financing the resurrection of the defunct group to kick start another deadly rebellion against President John Mahama and the government, NDC National Chairman, Mr. Kofi Portuphy was reported to have called on Mr Rawlings to ‘plead’ with members of FONKAR to hold their guns.

Sources at the ridge residence of the NDC founder told this paper that after The aL-hAJJ’s publication on the imminent revolt, Mr Rawlings invited Mr Teye Nyaunu and some executives of both FONKAR and the NDC to discuss how to mend the current differences.

The meeting was said to have been called at the behest of Mr. Portuphy who, our source say, had earlier pleaded with the former President “to talk to Teye Nyaunu and his people to allow them some time to fix whatever problems they have with the party.”

“For them (NDC Executives) they think the old man (Mr Rawlings) is aware of our meetings, and probably sanctioned it so Portuphy called on him to step in on their behalf and a meeting was arranged at which the NDC national chairman, Portuphy, party Treasurer, Alhaji PMC, national women's organizer, Hajia Zainab and other executives were present. Mr Teye Nyaunu was also invited for the meeting and it was agreed that we should give them some time to operate,” a leading figure of FONKAR revealed.

It was agreed during a meeting last month by some members of FONKAR to meet again on July 6, this year to firm up how to carry out a destructive agenda against President John Mahama and the NDC, however, last week's meeting altered all that, “the meeting indeed came on but because of what was agreed upon between the National Executives and Mr Teye Nyaunu and co., we all agreed to respect the decision of the old man (Mr Rawlings) to give them time,” another source told this paper.

According the source, the Krobo Odumase meeting, which was held at one Mr Albert’s residence, was attended by a large number of FONKAR members, “initially the meeting was scheduled to take place at Agormenya but because your paper reported it, the venue was later changed to Krobo Odumase and attendance was more than the previous.”

The Al-hAJJ has also gathered that the Krobo Odumase meeting last Saturday was attended by some big shots of the party who were backbone of FONKAR in its formative years. The meeting, according to usual reliable sources was addressed by an ex- military officer (name withheld) who operates from former President Rawlings’ Ridge office. “He (the former military officer) told us that if the executives fail to put things in order as they are promising, we can go ahead with what we intended doing and he will support us in all our activities,” a source at the meeting noted.

The aL-hAJJ recently reported that some NDC gurus who are also associates of Mr Rawlings are resourcing former leading members of FONKAR, but who have now been integrated into the NDC, to resuscitate the almost extinct group to fight the Mahama administration over allegations of neglect and abandoning the NDC’s core values of probity, accountability and social justice.

As part of the agenda to disrupt the Mahama government, former members of FONKAR, who denounced Nana Konadu and her NDP to campaign for President Mahama in the 2012 election, according to sources, were to resign their positions en-mass.

But following Portuphy’s negotiation with Mr. Rawlings, all plans by the former FONKAR members to resign their posts have been put on hold.

“We have for now suspended our plans to resign our positions…we are looking at whether the national executives will live up to their promise to put things in order. I’m told they have started touring the regions to meet displeased members of FONKAR and if you observed, you would realized most of the big shots in the NDC who abandoned the June 4 celebrations during the Mills era all attended this year’s event. That alone speaks volume and it’s an indication that they are ready to return the party to its original base as they promised,” a former leading member of FONKAR told this paper.