"Kufuor is Paranoid" - Obed Asamoah

The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah, says the President, John Agyekum Kufuor is paranoid.

In an interview on his comments on the outcome of an NDC meeting on the arrest of the party's Chairman for the Brong-Ahafo Region, Alhaji Collins Dauda last Tuesday, Dr. Asamoah said, the arrest was an act of paranoia on the part of the President.

Although Dr. Asamoah confirmed that the Tuesday meeting by the Functional Executive Council (FEC) of the NDC deliberated extensively on the arrest of its Brong-Ahafo Regional Chairman, he refused to disclose to this reporter, details of the decisions taken at the said meeting, because he thought that would have pre-empted the party's official position in a statement that later reached this paper by fax yesterday.

He nonetheless, offered hints about the general mood of NDC chieftains present at the said meeting towards the arrest of their colleague member and his personal opinion about the arrest.

For once in many weeks, the weekly Tuesday Functional Executive Council (FEC) meeting of the NDC The Independent gathered took a different turn.

The Independent gathered from the bowels of the party's headquarters where the meeting was held that unlike previous ones, party chiefs at last Tuesday meeting took a serious view of the arrest of their colleague on Thursday, November 27, by personnel of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at his private Baatsona residence for parking his private car opposite the President's private home.

He was charged for causing security risk around the private residence area of the President.

Meetings of the FEC, which is the standing committee of the Executive Council of the NDC, are supposed to be attended by the National Chairman and his deputies, General Secretary and his deputies, the National Organiser and his deputies and all others who would be invited.

According to Dr. Asamoah, like some of the submissions at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), where certain arbitrary decisions in the past were made out of fear, the arrest of Collins Dauda bore semblance of arbitrariness, a decision taken out of fear and panic.

The NDC National Chairman condemned in no uncertain terms the arrest of Alhaji Dauda, saying, "he could have been questioned and not arrested. There is no wrong in questioning him, but the arrest was absolutely unjustifiable".

He wondered why anybody could go to the extent that the security personnel did when the man at the centre of the storm, Chief Inspector Oduro and his wife all corroborated Alhaji Dauda's explanation that he had gone to the ambience of the President's residence to confer with the police officer because of the mutual relationship between himself (Alhaji Dauda), the Chief Inspector and the latter's family.

In the opinion of Dr. Asamoah, if the Brong Ahafo NDC Regional Chairman's presence in the ambience of the President's residence was a security risk, he believed, he would not have exposed himself to the level he did.

Meanwhile, the tone of the party's release after last Tuesday's meeting was no different from what Dr. Obed Asamoah used in talking to this reporter.

It condemned without any reservation the arrest of Hon. Collins Dauda. In the press statement signed by Deputy General Secretary Bede A Ziedeng, the party said it "has learnt with shock and disbelief the arrest and detention of Alhaji Collins Dauda, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Chairman of the Party and former Member of Parliament foe Asutifi South by the President's security men".

The party saw the whole act as a clampdown on political opponents and can only be described as another act of political harassment, which has become the stock in trade of the Kufuor-led NPP administration.

The NDC said it was disappointed with the state of paranoia the President finds himself entrapped by and cautioned him "...to avoid panicky security reaction that could jeopardise our fragile peace and lead to another National Reconciliation exercise in the future".

The statement also cautioned "over-zealous and enthusiastic security personnel who are bent on taking actions just to please their 'masters' [to desist] for they will be held responsible for their own actions".

The statement therefore called on the IGP, Nana Owusu-Nsiah "to take steps to re-orient policemen towards their duties particularly, those around the Presidency and other political office holders before they plunge this country into chaos by their indiscretion".