The Ashanti Regional organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Awudu Ariff Abubakar, has commended the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for adopting prudent economic policies that have led to the stabilisation of the national currency, the cedi.
He, however, lamented that the impact of the stabilisation of the cedi has not reflected positively on the lives of Ghanaians.
Alhaji Awudu stated this in a post-constituency congress interview with the Chronicle at Tepa, capital of Ahafo Ano-North constituency.
The regional organiser noted that the biggest problem confronting the NDC at the moment is intimidation of its members by members of the ruling NPP government.
"Due to the high level of intimidation of our members by the NPP administration, most of our members find it difficult to openly contribute their quota to the re-organisational efforts of our dynamic party," the eloquent Alhaji complained.
When he was asked to get down to the specifics of his alleged intimidation, the organiser re-visited the issue of the arrest of Mr. E. T. Mensah, the Youth and Sports Minister in the past regime, by the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI), which, according to him, was without any justification.
Alhaji Awudu also contended that typical cases of intimidation are going on in various government departments and at the District Assemblies, where according to him, people who were employed by the past regime as civil servants are categorised as affiliates of the NDC and are being forced to resign or treated unfairly.
The regional organiser of the umbrella party further alleged that the salaries of employees of urban, town and area councils have not been paid by the government because, as he put it,
"The government perceives most of the employees of the sub-district structures as NDC functionaries."
Meanwhile, the biggest opposition party is grappling with problems in holding constituency congresses to elect its executives at the constituency level in its biggest opposition region - Ashanti.
With a few days to go to the regional congress in Kumasi, the NDC has so far been only able to hold congresses in 12 out of the 33 constituencies in the Ashanti Region.
