Render an unqualified apology to Victor Smith - Group to Koku Anyidoho

A group calling itself, Eastern Forum Network (EFN) has called on the opposition National Democratic Congress' (NDC) Deputy General Secretary, Koku Anyidoho to immediately retract his comment about the former Ambassador Emmanuel Victor Smith and apologise to him.

Mr Koku Anyidoho recently described Ghana's former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, His Excellency Mr Victor Smith as "a coward and useless man"

After the heaviest defeat in the history of Ghana's politics since 1992, the NDC witnessed in 2016 general elections, the internal wrangling keep deepening and this has led to personal attacks and acrimony.

The group is in a press statement calling on Mr Koku Anyidoho to retract his unacceptable comments with immediate effect and render an unqualified apology to Mr Victor Smith.

Below is the full statement;

KOKU ANYIDOHO MUST RENDER AN UNQUALIFIED APOLOGY TO HIS EXCELLENCY AMB. EMMANUEL VICTOR SMITH.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, We members of Eastern Forum Network have learnt with utter disappointment through media reports the disgusting outburst of Mr. Koku Anyidoho, the NDC's Deputy General secretary in reaction to a statement made by His Excellency Mr. Victor Smith.

According to the reports, Anyidoho went as far as describing Ghana's former High Commissioner to the UK as "a coward and useless man".

Permit us to put on record that if there exists any coward in our Party, then that certainly can not be Amb. Victor Smith.

Here is Amb. Smith (the lone ranger) who found the courage to tell party leadership to be proactive and not wait for petitions before they act to prevent all the brouhaha going on in public about the Party.

We can also recall Amb. Smith's reaction to the hobnobbing by Mr Rawlings with Nana Akufo-Addo during the heat of the campaign of the just-ended elections.

How many people in our party have that kind of courage to continuously speak the minds of the party foot soldiers the way Amb. Smith does?

Which coward could have questioned the Party leadership's failure to have held our erstwhile administration to check?

Now Koku has the guts to go on radio and make such slanderous comments about Amb. Smith.

If he, as an executive member together with his team in whose hands we had entrusted the affairs of the Party had taken the right steps in handling JJ and Mr Martin Amidu, perhaps our story would have been different today.

Has he forgotten how he ridiculed himself on Nana Aba Anamoah's show after he was asked whether he loved President Mahama?

History tells us more about how courageous Amb. Smith has been particularly when he served as a personal secretary to Ex-President Rawlings from the 90s to 2008.

If Koku cares to know, what Amb. Smith said about Party leadership recently is what the party foot soldiers are expectant of and not the excessive radio talker he has turned himself into.

It is sad to note how quick Koku was in attacking the Ambassador for the wrong reasons and going ahead to belittle his courage.

We don't mean to over-extend issues but rather let koku Anyidoho know that the courage Amb. Smith possesses is that courage we want most of our party leaders if not all to learn from.

We, therefore, call for an immediate retraction and apology to Ambassador Smith.

...Signed...

Mr. Winston Mills - Eastern Forum Network, Leader