'Maybe Asiedu Nketia smelt the reek of alcohol of his own breath' - John Boadu fires

General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu has chastised his colleague General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketia for suggesting that military officers stationed at Banda in the Bono Region were “drunk”.

Mr Asiedu Nketia on Monday, questioned the level of professionalism of military personnel deployed to maintain peace in the Banda Constituency, accusing them of not only "reeking of alcohol", but having the demeanour of "rebels on drugs".

He alleged that instead of discharging their core duties as expected, the military officers are rather supporting the NPP Parliamentary Candidate to flout the agreement signed between the two main political parties.

He was speaking in an interview with Kwame Nkrumah Tikesie on Okay FM’s "Ade Akye Abia" Morning Show.

“The military officers on duty have no business to stop people from taking part in the registration exercise. They can't block the road to stop people from registering. You should see those military officers on duty smelling of alcohol; blowing ‘fuse’ when they were talking to me. They looked like rebels on drugs and you could not look into their eyes and if you don't take care, you will get drunk talking them,” a furious Asiedu Nketia charged at the soldiers.

But in a sharp riposte on the same platform, John Boadu described the remarks as "unfair". To him, since the NDC General Secretary is not a teetotaler, it is likely he (Asideu Nketia) was the culprit.

“I think that it was unfair on the part of the NDC General Secretary to label state actors in the manner he did. He (Asiedu Nketia) also drinks; doesn’t he take in alcohol as well? I have visited Banda and I have interacted with the security agencies and nobody blew ‘fuse’ (reeked of alcohol) as Asiedu Nketia claimed. Maybe he smelt the reek of alcohol of his own breath and is rather attempting to channel it to police or the military officers....

“He (Asiedu) is guilty of reeking of alcohol thus he believes same of others. It was an unfair comment and unbefitting his stature. They (military personnel) reek of alcohol, how?....these gallant men and women have left their homes to maintain peace at our borders because of a misunderstanding in the area...and this is how you describe them!” he fumed.

The NPP Chief Scribe however admitted that border towns in the country over the years are a thorny issue when it comes to who is eligible to register and vote as a Ghanaian. He, therefore, stressed that it is about time a stop is put to this cheating behavior by political parties who have the penchant to bus people from neighboring countries to participate in Ghana's electoral process.

“It is not only the Togo border that such challenges happen, but the border between Pulsiga and Burkina Faso and Togo and Aowin in the Western Region, a border town with Ivory Coast; all these areas experienced same major challenge where there is deliberate attempt over the years to bus people who are not Ghanaians and don’t qualify to register to sneak in to register leading to some of these confrontations”, he said.

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