Recent developments within the Ledzokuku Constituency and the reportage that has gone on on the various media platforms across the country has necessitated us to issue this Press Release to properly set the records straight and put an end to the vile media propaganda being embarked on my some elements within the NDC in the Ledzokuku Constituency.
Members of the media, the NDC in the Ledzokuku Constituency is largely at peace with itself. We remain united and very focus on our aim of retaining the Parliamentary and Presidential votes in the Constituency in the next elections. The Constituency is enjoying unprecedented support from all our 188 Branches and 16 Wards. Our Youth and Women Wings have been very active and engaging in various healthy activities aimed at solidifying our base as a progressive political party. Indeed, just last month, the Youth Wing with support of our able Hon MP organized the first ever Ledzokuku NDC Youth Football tournament and the patronage so far has been superb.
It is therefore utterly out of place for the continuous negative reportage and naked concoction about the NDC in the Ledzokuku Constituency as we have been reading and hearing in the media lately. Sadly, we have noticed with great pain how some journalists have allowed themselves to be used by selfish and wicked individuals to perpetrate lies and push an evil inspired agenda against the NDC. As much as we respect and appreciate the work of our hard working media men and women, we believe that some of them will better serve society if they up their acts a bit. Progressive journalism has evolved from merely reporting accusations and counter accusations of people to critically investigating the issues and presenting the truth from a fair and balanced point of view. And we entreat our media men and women to give a thought to this.
But what are the issues?
1. SUSPENSIONS/ DISMISSAL OF OVER 200 ASSEMBLY ASPIRANTS
It has been reported by a section of the media that the leadership of the NDC in the Constituency has suspended/ dismissed over 200 Assembly aspirants from the party. And that is very unfortunate. A little research by some of our journalists would have revealed to them that there are only 12 Electoral Areas within the Ledzokuku Constituency and as such a colossal number of 200 Assembly aspirants is near to an impossibility. In any case, how many Assembly Aspirants even registered with the Electoral Commission in the botched District Assembly Elections in the first place? Again, as a political party, the Laws governing the Local Assembly Elections do not permit us to take such an action and we are not oblivious of that.
As a party, as mandated by our Constitution, we suspended just 10 erring members for various acts that bring the image of our President, H.E John Dramani Mahama, our MP, Hon Benita Sena okity-Duah and the NDC into disrepute and we made that known to all the 1,143 Branch Executives of the NDC in the Constituency. Indeed, after a month of the suspensions, four of the suspended members have openly shown remorse and as such we have since refused to renew their suspensions as our Constitution demands. The rest, we have referred them to our Disciplinary Committee.
As to how 10 dramatically changed to 200, only the heavens know. It is instructive to note however, that after we issued these suspensions, we also got copies of fake suspensions letters with forged signatures of our Secretary making the rounds. We have since reported that criminal act to the Teshie Police.
2. LOCKING OF OUR PARTY OFFICE
We have also read from the various media platforms that one of the aggrieved suspended members locked our Constituency Office in protest. That is also a far cry from the truth. The member who went to lock the Constituency Office on 17th March 2015 is not a part of the 10 hitherto suspended. Therefore, we find it rather strange and unacceptable why he acted that way.
As law abiding and peace loving citizens, we duly reported the case to the Teshie Police station and the member has since been ordered to open the Constituency office. The case is about folding up at the Teshie Police Station now. As a party, we have instituted an internal disciplinary action against the said member to serve as deterrent to all others.
3. MP HAS TRANSFERRED GENERAL MEETING TO HER MOTHER’S HOUSE
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, another unfortunate lie being pushed in the media has been that in a bid to take full control of the NDC in the Constituency, our MP, Hon Benita Sena Okity-Duah has now single-handedly taken our General Meeting, held every Wednesday from our usual Meeting place to his mum’s residence.
The truth of the matter is that, the Executive Committee in one of our Meetings decided to rotate the venues of our General Meetings between the 16 demarcated Wards in order to bring the NDC closer to our members. We decided to use “NDC at your doorstep” as we christened it to explain some of the developmental issues going on in the Constituency and the Country to our general membership in order for them to be abreast with the issues.
One of the Wards, Okesekor, considering the number of members to attend the meeting decided to have theirs at the MPs mother’s house, because the place is more spacious. Indeed, the meeting held on 25th March 2015 at MPs mother’s residence was not the first meeting being held at that venue.
4. GUNS AT OUR MEETINGS
Another grave lie that we have had to contend with was that the bodyguard of our MP, Sergeant Charles Grantson pulled a gun and point it at the faces of some of our members during one of our meetings held at our Constituency Office recently. We will like to place on record and make it known to all that on the said meeting day held on the 11th of March 2015, Sergeant Charles Grantson did not at any time pull gun and pointed it at the faces of our members. It never happened!
As once in a while happens in all meetings, there was a small disagreement between our members and flare of emotions during our meeting on the said date. During the circumstances prevailing, Sergeant Charles Grantson who was present had to come in to safeguard his madam during the brief melee that occurred. He was not even in a Police uniform by then, and he was not armed too. How on earth can an unarmed Police Officer therefore pull a gun? The report had it that he took the gun from his madam’s car, is it an acceptable Police practice to leave pistols or guns in vehicles? What if another person gets hold of it?
Ladies and gentlemen of the Press, since 28th January 2012 when our now MP, Hon Benita Sena Okity-Duah was elected to lead the NDC in this constituency, the dissatisfied few has never stopped to derailed her efforts and that of the party in solidifying our base in this Constituency. They have moved heaven and earth to make things difficult, not only for our MP, but the NDC in this Constituency in general.
The current media bad image painting is the work of these men within the NDC in Ledzokuku who should have known better. Even though we accept the fact that we can’t stop them from going to the media with their ill-intended agenda against the NDC and our representative in the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, we are humbly entreating the media to properly make their checks, investigate the issues and thoroughly question their sources before publishing some of these stories.
As a party, we are always ready to engage our media men to explain our side of the issues to them, and we hope they wouldn’t find it too herculean getting in touch with us. We thank you very much for your continuous support and we hope for more in the coming months and years.
Thank you very much.
Patrick Nuagbedzi
Constituency Chairman
National Democratic Congress - Ledzokuku
020-4322211 / 0244-646088
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