Supporters deny involvement of Kofi Adda in Tangoba’s defeat

Correspondence from Upper East Region:

Supporters of Ghana’s Aviation Minister and incumbent Member of Parliament for the Navrongo Central constituency, Joseph Kofi Adda, have denied any involvement of the legislator in the defeat of Tangoba Abayage, the New Patriotic Party Parliamentary (NPP) candidate, in the just-ended election.

The supporters maintained that Mr. Adda had no hand in whatsoever may have caused Ms. Abayage to lose the election to Sampson Tangombu Chiragia of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The supporters said if there was anyone to blame for the defeat and loss of the seat from the NPP, it would be Ms. Abayage and the people in her camp, including the Municipal Chief Executive for the area and the constituency chairman of the party, who were front liners of her campaign activities dating from the days before the Primaries.

Addressing Journalists at a Press Conference held yesterday, December 10, 2020, to respond to media publications that Mr. Adda masterminded the Regional Minister’s defeat, the teeming supporters said Ms. Abayage and her camp were so sure of victory that they did not open arms to members of Kofi Adda’s camp to work collectively to ensure the seat was retained.

They also said Ms. Abayage and the executive failed to continue the unity building process that had been started by leadership of the party to mend the broken relationship that was created in the heat of the primaries.

In a statement read by their spokesperson Martin Agyua, the supporters pointed accusing fingers at the constituency executives of undertaking an agenda to make Kofi Adda unpopular in the eyes of the public for the primaries. They said in the executives’ quest to prepare the ground for Ms. Abayage to contest the primaries and to substitute Mr. Adda, they conducted a survey which created a false impression that Mr. Adda’s popularity had waned and he had lost touch with the constituents.

They described the allegations as absurd and against a figure adored by many and considered as the mainstay and face of the New Patriotic Party as far as politics in the constituency was concerned.

Ms. Abayage and her camp, the supported revealed excluded them in all her campaign activities. They said that action communicated to them that Ms. Abayage did not need Kofi Adda and his camp to win the election.

They reiterated Mr. Adda’s support and commitment to the progress of the NPP and said when he was not welcomed in the campaign of Ms. Abayage, he went to the Chiana-Paga constituency where he vigorously canvassed votes for the Parliamentary candidate and President Akufo Addo.

The supporters in their statement called for the immediate resignation of the entire executive body of the Navrongo central constituency and the Municipal Chief Executive for failing to unite the party for victory. They also demanded the resignation of Ms. Abayage as Regional Minister for her inability to market the NPP well which led to its abysmal performance at the general election.

Below is the full statement:

PRESS RELEASE

RESPONSE TO ATTEMPTS TO BLAME AVIATION MINISTER, HON. JOSEPH KOFI ADDA, FOR THE DEFEAT OF THE UPPER EAST REGIONAL MINISTER, HON. TANGOBA ABAYAGE

We are members of the Kofi Adda Grassroots for Peace and Development (KAG-PED) in the Navrongo Central Constituency. KAG-PED represents a section of the teeming supporters of the Minister for Aviation and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Navrongo Central Constituency, Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda, home and abroad. We also wish to make it known that KAG-PED is made up of supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Navrongo Central Constituency and beyond.

We considered issuing this press statement out of necessity after our attention was drawn to some unequivocal attempts made by the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Tangoba Abayage, to blame Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda for the defeat she suffered as the parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the just-ended 2020 general elections in the Navrongo Central Constituency.

In the news publications we have sighted on the internet so far, the Regional Minister is quoted to have told Joy News, 3news.com and a number of media houses that she lost the election because Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda campaigned against her. Her claims can be found in the Wednesday December 9, 2020, publications of the GhanaWeb with such headlines as “I have evidence Kofi Adda campaigned against me”, “Bitter Kofi Adda masterminded my disgraceful defeat” and “I wept before Kofi Adda yet he jilted me— Minister cries after defeat”.

In our response to the absurd allegations being made by Hon. Tangoba Abayage against a figure whom many adore and consider as the mainstay and face of the NPP politics in the Navrongo Central, we would like to make it clear that if there was somebody to blame for her defeat, then, the blame should go to Hon. Tangoba Abayage and her election campaign camp.

Long before parliamentary nominations were due to be opened in the Navrongo Central Constituency for the 2020 general elections, some individuals, who eventually turned out to be members of Hon. Tangoba Abayage’s election campaign camp, began to take a shot at Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda at the time he was the Minister for Water Resources and Sanitation. Those individuals claimed they undertook a survey on the NPP’s parliamentary chances for the 2020 general elections and their findings, according to them, showed that Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda’s popularity had waned to a level where the party needed a substitute in order to retain the parliamentary seat being occupied by Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda.

When they began to spread their supposed findings, we suspected and later discovered that the survey did not actually state that Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda had become unpopular but the so-called survey was rather a covert agenda to make him look unpopular in the eyes of the public. After the completion of that so-called survey, Hon. Tangoba Abayage emerged and announced her intention to contest Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda at the primaries. The sponsors of the survey and those who wanted Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda out of the way, like the Municipal Chief Executive for the Kassena-Nankana Municipality and the NPP’s Chairman of the Navrongo Central Constituency among others, supported her openly. We knew they claimed Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda’s popularity had declined because their intention was to create a false impression to prepare the grounds for the Regional Minister for the primaries against the Aviation Minister. They sought to use the malicious survey to justify a secret agenda to unfairly throw out a selfless man who has lived his life for the party and the common man in the constituency for over two decades.

A lot of abusive language was hurled at Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda and members of his camp after he lost the primaries to Hon. Tangoba Abayage. All of us became targets for victimization at the hands of the camp of Hon. Tangoba Abayage. A certain group of media practitioners who were hired to project Hon. Tangoba Abayage ridiculed Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda on air and online after his defeat at the primaries. Throughout the months of mockery and ill-treatment meted out to Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda and his supporters, the parliamentary candidate in the person of Hon. Tangoba Abayage did not see the need to call them to order as though she was very pleased at the things her camp was doing against the members of the same NPP family.

Elders of the party attempted to forge reconciliation between the two camps ahead of the main elections but the camp of Hon. Tangoba Abayage would not cooperate. It was expected that the her camp would draw the camp of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda as close as possible to itself to double the efforts needed to retain the seat; the needed unity never materialized. Her camp excluded from its campaign activities anybody perceived to belong to the camp of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda.

The last time President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo toured the Upper East Region and graced a durbar at Paga and a man wearing a Kofi Adda T-shirt took her photograph at the venue, Hon. Tangoba Abayage instructed her security aide to ensure the man delete the pictures on his camera device. Anybody seen as a supporter of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda is treated as an enemy and denied opportunities once he or she is perceived to be in support of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda. Besides the fact that members of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda’s camp were cut off from information on the party’s internal affairs by the campaign camp of Hon. Tangoba Abayage, supporters of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda were boldly told by the supporters of by Hon. Tangoba Abayage that they would be dealt if she won the general elections.

If Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda actually wanted to sabotage Hon. Tangoba Abayage’s campaign, he would have stood independent to thwart her chances; but he did not do so. His hands are clean. Hon. Tangoba Abayage and her team said they did not need Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda and his team to win the seat and they left Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda and his team out of their campaign programme. As a result of these circumstances, Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda spent his time and resources campaigning for the NPP’s parliamentary candidate in the Chiana-Paga Constituency, Hon. Robert Aloo. Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda campaigned for His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the Navrongo Central Constituency and the Chiana-Paga Constituency. Hon. Tangoba Abayage insulted hairdressers and market women that they were dirty and useless and drove them away from her house whilst the NDC’s Hon. Samson Chiragia received them, danced with them and provided them with food and money for their function. Hon. Tangoba Abayage’s words and posture were loud and clear that she did not need Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda to win the seat, saying she would buy the people with money. It, therefore, sounds so absurd that the same Regional Minister and her self-isolated camp would be seeking to give the Minister for Aviation a bad name for her electoral defeat.

Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda remains a hero of development in the Navrongo Central Constituency. He has constructed bridges to link communities that are hard to reach. He has sponsored several students at all levels to further their education. The people of Navrongo will not forget other development projects like the modernization of the airstrip at Saboro, the market complex at Pindaa, the CHPS compounds he has assisted to construct, provision of boreholes, connecting communities to the national grid, proposal for the construction of a surgical theatre block at the Navrongo War Memorial Hospital and many more.

Nobody brought down Hon. Tangoba Abayage. She brought down herself with the aid of the Municipal Chief Executive for the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, the NPP’s Chairman for the Navrongo Central Constituency and some others. Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda remains a legend in Navrongo. He stands so tall even the newly elected MP for Navrongo, Hon. Samson Tangombu Chiragia of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), confessed to newsmen in a news report online that Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda was the person who could have won the seat for the NPP. As we said in the beginning, KAG-PED is a section of the many supporters who recognize and appreciate the good work of Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda and will resist any attempt by anybody to give him a bad name.

Long live the NPP! Long live the Navrongo Central Constituency!!! Long live Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda!!!

Ing. David Basepe Nyerere Adda.

SIGNED.