Obed Clashes With NDC

Following the party’s inability to raise money to settle its debts, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been blaming its former Chairman, Dr Obed Yao Asamoah for its woes, accusing him of siphoning the party’s funds.

According to Daniel Ohene Agyekum, Ashanti Regional chairman of the NDC, Dr Asamoah stole huge sums from the party’s coffers during his stewardship and used it to further the Democratic Freedom Party ( DFP), a breakaway party from the NDC.

In quick rebuttal however, the DFP kingpin described the accusation as nonsensical and pure fabrication. According to Dr Asamoah, the NDC should report him to the police for his arrest or take him to court, if they were serious about the allegations.

Fuming with rage, the two politicians who served the nation in various ministerial positions under the NDC administration, waded into hot media brawl, trading insults and vulgar language on Kessben FM, a Kumasi-based private radio station when they argued extensively over alleged misappropriation of party funds.

Daniel Ohene Agyekum, a former Ashanti Regional minister, had accused Obed Asamoah, former national chairman of the NDC of stealing huge sums of money belonging to the party to form his party, the DFP, after the ill-fated NDC Koforidua congress.

Agyekum told listeners that if the former NDC chairman did not steal money from party coffers, he should come out personally to tell the world how he managed to raise money to purchase expensive vehicles, to the extent of giving out two of them to be used in running its Ashanti Regional secretariat.

He said he had every right to question where Obed had been getting his money from to manage and administer the affairs of his party.

Firing further salvos at the DFP founder, Ohene Agyekum alleged that the NDC became insolvent, thus was unable to service its debts during the tenure of Dr Obed Asamoah as national chairman. This, he said, pointed to the fact that until Dr Obed Asamoah was elected national chairman of the party, the NDC was financially sound, capable of paying its rents and utility bills regularly.

According to the Ashanti region NDC chairman, Obed incurred and bequeathed huge debts to his former party without making any effort to pay them. These debts, he disclosed, which accrued from non-payment of utility bills, including electricity and telephone, as well as rents of party offices, accumulated to about half a billion cedis.

Daniel Ohene Agyekum described Obed Asamoah as a joker if he thought his DFP could be a threat to the NDC or destroy it in the 2008 general elections.

“Obed is in to fail if he thinks he can destroy the NDC. DFP would have no chance to win an election in the country,” Agyekum charged. He surmised that the only challenge the DFP could pose to the NDC in the 2008 elections would be how to sustain and protect its members.

To help address this challenge, therefore, Ohene Agyekum said he had began educating the NDC members and supporters in the region to be wary of the deception of Obed Asamoah and his ilk in the DFP, who he believed, would approach them and throw dust into their eyes, to win their support.

Giving a forecast of electoral performances in the 2008 elections, the NDC Ashanti chairman said but for God’s intervene, there was no way the DFP could bag even 2 per cent of the total votes that would be cast during the 2008 elections.

According to him, the leadership of the NDC had no reason to be bothered about a party which had lost its existence in the minds of the voters.

Ohene Agyekum alleged that Dr Obed Asamoah was accorded cold reception when he visited his hometown in the Volta Region recently; a gesture which was a clear indication that the people were not interested in the DFP.

Reacting to the NDC guru’s assertions, Dr Obed Asamoah said all his former pal had talked about were nonsense and blatant lies, without basis. He argued that if the NDC thought the DFP was not a threat to it, then it should be happy and rest comfortably.

Obed described as untruthful and absolutely nonsensical, the allegation by Ohene Agyekum that he (Obed) stole NDC’s money to form his party, and challenged the NDC to report him to the police for his arrest or take him to court if they knew how much money he had siphoned from the party coffers when he was its chairman.

Describing Ohene Agyekum’s action as a deliberate attempt to seek a scape-goat for the party’s inefficiencies, the DFP founder argued that the debts the NDC had been making noise about were not incurred personally but officially, toward running the party. He explained that the DFP was formed, among other objectives, to promote certain values in the political system of the country.