NDC damns Kwesi Botchwey report

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to have rejected the Kwesi Botchwey report on the party’s humiliating defeat in the 2016 presidential polls.

Even though the report blamed former President John Dramani Mahama and his handlers for the party’s defeat, the NDC, through its National Organiser, issued a statement denouncing the report as published by DAILY GUIDE last week.

The Kwesi Botchwey Committee had described former President John Dramani Mahama as living the life of a “movie star” in the run-up to the election.

“President Mahama lived a life of a movie star,” the 65-page Executive Summary of the report stated on Page 27.

But the NDC, through Kofi Adams – who was also indicted in the report – denied that the committee’s report never had any adverse findings on the former president, who led the NDC for the embarrassing defeat.

“The attention of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been drawn to yet another series of false publications by the DAILY GUIDE newspaper and which are being circulated as excerpts from the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee report.

“The said reports, published on Tuesday, September 19 and Wednesday, September 20, 2017 by the DAILY GUIDE, are false, and are not contained anywhere in the report of the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee,” the statement issued on Wednesday evening pointed out.

Another denial by Dr William Ahadzie, NDC Director of Research, indicated that the wordings like ‘lived a life of a movie star’ couldn’t have been captured in the report.

Strangely, Dr Ahadzie, who succeeded in ‘messing up’ the National Identification Project when he was the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), was also a member of the Kwesi Botchwey Committee.

He denied the content of the report on Joy Fm as published by DAILY GUIDE, strongly rising to the defence of former President John Mahama.

In the 65-page Executive Summary of the report, the Kwesi Botchwey Committee made damning conclusions on the role played by Mr. Mahama and a few of his aides in the massive electoral defeat in 2016.

According to the report, the former president let himself down with his attitude towards the campaign, claiming “John Mahama lost the elections and not the NDC.”

The report also singled out Stan Dogbe and others for the president’s undoing, adding, “The president was virtually naked with the two around him.

The report – a copy of which is in the possession of DAILY GUIDE – indicated, “Doing away with Stan Dogbe and Omane Boamah could have earned the president one million votes so he didn’t have to look to Ashanti Region for the one million votes.

“Omane Boamah and Stan Dogbe convinced the president that he was more popular than the NDC ticket. The two were also the shadow actors of the government.

“The president’s inner circles were so intolerant that when you criticize the president, you are condemned.”

Dr Omane Boamah has already rejected the portion about his role in the defeat of the NDC, requesting for a copy of the report to enable him to respond.

DAILY GUIDE will resume the serialization tomorrow about money meant for some journalists but allegedly found its way into the pocket of a close confidant of John Mahama.

The NDC also criticized the biometric data of its members, virtually describing it as fraudulent because the party says it was manipulated.