Akufo-Addo remains a threat to Ghana - Ablakwa

Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has mounted a strong attack on NPP’s flag-bearer Nana Akufo-Addo, suggesting that his stance at the Kumasi Declaration for a peaceful election poses danger to the nation.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story Tuesday, he indicated that Nana Addo has demonstrated to the nation that he is still a threat to the December elections.

Presidential candidates of the various political parties - the NDC, NPP, CPP and PNC, UFP, PPP, GCPP - converged at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the Ashanti regional capital Kumasi where they pledged their commitment to peace.

The NPP presidential candidate having pledged to respect the results of the elections, charged the president to go beyond discourse and ensure that people do not feel that the security forces are party color blind, noting that this fuels anxieties.

Nana Addo also cited a recent attack on NPP supporters at Asutifi South by operatives of the ruling NDC, and what he said was lack of investigation into the Yaw Boateng Gyan’s tape saga, which he believed have shaken public confidence in the elections.

But Mr Ablakwa faulted Nana Addo for choosing what he said was the wrong platform to highlight such issues.

According to him, the platform was provided for the candidates to truly demonstrate to the nation that they were committed to peace, but for him, Nana Addo misfired in his presentation.

Nana Akfuo-Addo, he claimed, “is living up to his reputation as the most dangerous person in this election” and accused the flag-bearer of unnecessarily putting up a “belligerent attitude”.

He noted the issue of political intolerance and attacks cuts across the political divide, and for Nana Addo to cite those pertaining to the ruling party indicates that the NPP flag-bearer has “decided to suffer from selective amnesia”.

The Deputy Information Minister pointed out that Nana Akufo-Addo should have been invited and investigated by the security agencies when he popularized the catchphrase “all-die-be-die” and yet “refusing to withdraw and apologise for it”.

“We are deeply concerned, we have been discussing among ourselves after Nana Addo’s posture this evening, it is clear that there are worrying days ahead, Nana Akufo-Addo clearly remains a threat to a peaceful election on December 7.

“The same tactics he used in the 2008 elections, refusing to concede and sending his lawyers to court on Sunday to attempt to prevent the Electoral Commissioner from declaring results.”

Okudzeto Ablakwa feared that if the NDC failed to win next week Friday’s elections by a one touch, “there would be a trouble for us”, and stated that the party would work extra hard to secure a landslide victory to avoid a runoff, adding “only then that we would be safe, because clearly Nana Akufo-Addo is not committed to the peace building”.

But the National Chairman of the NPP, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey has rejected suggestions that Nana Addo chose the wrong platform to lay bare his concerns.

He said aside the instances cited by his candidate, there are several others currently going on in the country, which are being perpetrated by NDC functionaries, stressing that peace cannot be achieved by mere words.

He stated that it will take a political will from the president to empower the police and other security agencies to execute their work without any interference whatsoever.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey also debunked claims that Nana Addo comments were to raise an alarm, saying the day’s event would not have been necessary if people were not already alarmed.

He stressed that the NPP is ready to assist in prosecuting any of its own who perpetrates any criminal act.