Akufo-Addo?s Running-Mate Saga

Salaga Kicks Against Boniface

Insiders Tip Volta or Greater Accra To Provide Running-Mate

NPP apparatchiks in the Salaga Constituency have kicked against the reported move by Nana Akufo-Addo, to name the Salaga MP, Hon. Boniface Abubakar Siddique as his running mate.

In a swift reaction to reports in a number of newspapers yesterday that the Salaga MP is being considered as a possible running-mate to Akufo-Addo, the Secretary to the Salaga Akufo-Addo Fan Club, Mr. Iddi Adam, granted an interview to this paper to warn the NPP?s unconstitutional flagbearer to desist from any such move.

?We, the Salaga Akufo-Addo Fan Club, would want to place on record that we are vehemently against any move to make Boniface Siddique our candidate?s running-mate,? an obviously charged Iddi Adam stated.

Explaining their objection to such a move, Iddi Adam said that ?Boniface and all the delegates from Salaga did not vote for Akufo-Addo, therefore he cannot reap where he has not sown.?

Mr. Adam, whose credentials have been vouched for by a leading member of the Akufo-Addo campaign team, warned that making Boniface Siddique the NPP?s running mate would be tantamount to rewarding disloyalty, which would not be good for our party.

?Boniface is not popular in his own constituency so how can he bring anything to the ticket? Those who are pushing for him to be made our running-mate do not know the damage they are doing to our party,? Iddi stated. ?We call on Nana Akufo-Addo to rebuff these attempts and to choose a running-mate who would inspire us. Boniface is simply a disaster,? Iddi Adam advised.

The issue of who partners Nana Akufo-Addo for the 2008 elections, which the NDC flagbearer, Professor John Evans Atta Mills is widely tipped to win, has started dominating the media landscape.

While some media houses that are linked to the ruling NPP are clearly setting the agenda to create the impression that Nana Akufo-Addo is likely to choose his running-mate from any one of the three northern regions, Ghanaian Lens sources close to the Akufo-Addo campaign team say that these reports are only diversionary and are calculated to mislead the NDC.

According to our, the thinking in the Akufo-Addo camp is that after the humiliating manner in which the NPP treated Alhaji Aliu Mahama, the NPP cannot afford to go for a running-mate from the northern part of the country as this would seriously open the party to embarrassing questions.

Our sources are almost unanimous that Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP would go for a running mate from either Volta region or Greater Accra region, with the Central region being considered as an outside possibility. Stay tuned for more.