A youth activist of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has condemned the purported attempts by the current party leadership and its fanatics to create an unfettered situation for the re-election of the twice-defeated Presidential candidate, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He advised that the party fashion out strategies devoid of self-centred ambitions and parochial interests of certain groups of people.
Mr. Sulleman Alhassan Atakpo said, the decision by the National Chairman, certificate-less Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and General Secretary of the party, Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, to opt for the “top to down” approach in the organization of the party’s 2016 presidential primary, as well as the election of national executives is puerile.
According to him, the challenges facing the party must be addressed first, particularly, after losing two elections in a row.
Mr. Atakpo said as a group of young men in the party: “we want to state that the national leadership of the party must find answers to some of the mind-boggling issues that led to the NPP losing two elections in a row”.
He questioned the kind of training given to the various polling station officers who were deployed by the party in the run-off to the December 2012 elections, to police the ballot.
Mr. Atakpo, who is a member of the Dombo Advocacy Forum (DAF), a forum that has been advancing the course of the Dombo tradition within the party has also quizzed the leadership of the party of the role various polling station executives played in the last elections, as well as, their well-being; as it is emerging that their allowances were never paid.
“Many of the polling station executives are complaining that they have not received their responsibility allowance.
And it is this same group of people who have been denigrated and accused of being responsible for the party’s defeat”; he said.
Mr. Sulleman Alhassan Atakpo made this comments in an exclusive interview with The Informer in Accra.
He said the situation as it stands, exposes the current leadership, as a group of insensitive individuals who have lost touch with the grassroots of the party.
He questioned the rationale behind the “top to down” proposal, where the current leadership is aiming at electing a flagbearer before that of national executives.
He suspected that it was a move by the current leaders to hold on to their positions even though they have failed to live up to expectation.
According to him, this portrays the current leadership of the party as a self-seeking group of persons whose main agenda is inimical to the unity of the Danquah-Busia–Dombo tradition.
He called on all well-meaning party supporters to hold the current leadership accountable for the party’s loss in the last two elections and demanded that they be held accountable for the wanton dissipation of the party’s resources.
He said the National Chairman and his General Secretary must be made to account for the sixteen thousand Ghana Cedis, it took from each male parliamentary candidate in the run –up to the December 7 2012, general elections as well as the funds that accrued from the premium text messages that were rolled out as part of the fundraising campaign of the party.
