Kpessah-Whyte’s comments about Ocloo’s wife unfortunate - Buamah

A former secretary to Desmond Ocloo, the late National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Shai-Osudoku, has rejected allegations made by the Executive Secretary of the National Service Secretariat, Dr Michael Kpessah-Whyte, that posters of the late MP aspirants’ widow started surfacing on social media four days after her husband’s death.

Dr Whyte, who is making a second effort to win the bid to represent the NDC for the parliamentary there, having earlier lost to the late Ocloo in the November 2015 primary, in an interview with Class News, had said he would not step down for Mrs Linda Ocloo, who has filed her nomination papers to contest for the vacant slot following the death of her husband.

“I want to say that the pictures of Linda Ocloo never came out until after the man was buried. So, what Dr Kpessah-Whyte said is a lie, the man has spilled falsehood...,” Johnson Amenuveve Buamah told ClassFMonline.com.

Mr Buamah said it was rather Dr Kpessah-Whyte and his campaign team that started campaigning on social media less than 48 hours after the death of Mr Ocloo.

Dr Kpessah-Whyte had argued that the contest was not the preserve of a family, a suggestion Mr Buamah agreed, but he accused the presidential staffer of pleading with Mrs Ocloo to step down for him to contest unopposed.

“I agree with him the elections are not gift to families and should not be gift to families, but I want to ask if the position of the District Chief Executive is a gift to families because Dr Kpessah-Whyte is going round begging people to tell Linda Ocloo to step down…, promising her that he will give her the DCE should he win,” he alleged.

“I also want him to know that the MP position is not a bona fide property of any tribe. Per the constitution, once you are a permanent resident of an area for a certain number of years, you are qualified to contest; it is not a bona fide property of any tribe so he should not tell us that it is not a gift to any family.”

Mr Buamah also denied that Mrs Ocloo was not in support of her deceased husband contesting as alleged by Dr Whyte. “The woman followed her husband on the campaign trail wherever he went,” he said.

He revealed that some top NDC officials and Ministers of State were appealing to Mrs Ocloo to step down for Dr Kpessah-Whyte to contest the Shai-Osudoku seat unopposed, so, it was, therefore, unfortunate that Dr Kpessah-Whyte would make false statements about her.

Mr Ocloo died in an accident in March this year, rendering the NDC Shai-Osudoku parliamentary candidacy vacant.

Supporters of the widow have, however, suggested there should be no contest during the party’s upcoming primary.