The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) says they are happy to let Awal Mohammed, a senior communicator of the party in the Ashanti Region, go because the party couldn’t meet his outrageous demands.
That aside, his continuous stay in the party was going to be a bad influence in its members, a situation party officials say they are working on daily basis to prevent.
Awal Mohammed who was a deputy National Communications Officer for the Zongo Caucus of the NDC and as well a senior member of the NDC Communications Team in the Ashanti Region resigned from the Akatamansonians on Wednesday, October 5, 2016, to join the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
At a news conference to officially announce his resignation, Awal Mohammed said he got convinced by the Zongo Development Fund promised to be set up by flag bearer of the NPP, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo when given the mandate to govern the country in 2017.
“Not long ago, Nana Akufo-Addo came to the Ashanti Region and interacted with the zongos. In his interaction with the people, he promised to set up the Zongo Development Fund to help in face-lifting the zongo communities in the country in order to curb the challenges confronting the people.”
“A week after, I addressed a press conference and told the people that what Akufo Addo is promising is a lie because he doesn’t have any track record to support his claim. I further told my people that we in the NDC have better policies that can help in face-lifting the zongos communities and so, I urged the people not to give credence to what Akufo Addo told them. After that the NDC launched its manifesto and in the 88-page document, there is nothing that shows that they have plans for the zongo communities. It was only page 28 that I read that they will put our brothers and sisters in the zongo communities on the LEAP program to enable them enjoy some grants from the government.”
“But this is demeaning to the zongo communities because they are not interested in the small grants that would be doled out to them. In any case, how can they survive with that small grant when one is taking care of school children? The zongo communities rather need someone who will help in uplifting them from poverty by empowering them to survive on their own.”
“So, after analyzing this, I realized that we the zongos are being manipulated by the NDC who keep on using tribalism to divide us by telling us that the NPP does not like us. However, even though the NPP has not launched its manifesto, it has been able to demonstrate that when given the nod in 2017, they will earmark a fund to develop the zongos,” he noted.
However, a deputy Communications Director of the NDC, Solomon Nkansah, reacting to the issue told Kasapa Kasie on Kasapa 102.5 FM that Awal Mohammed wasn’t loyal to the NDC and that the party is happy to him go.
“When he joined the party, he started making unrealistic demands. And so we realized that he wasn’t loyal to the party. The NDC is not a party that doles out money to people. We are there to serve Ghana and not individuals. So, he should go to the NPP where his outrageous demands could be met.”
“He wanted to make it in life so quickly which the NDC was not prepared to do that and so if he has resigned to join the NPP, he should go. We will not sit down for him to be a bad influence on our people”, he noted.