Some members of NPP harboured 'misguided ideas' - Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo has said some members of the now-governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) who harboured “misguided ideas” almost destabilised the party and threatened its victory in the 2016 general elections, but for the courageous intervention and guidance of the late, C. K. Tedam.

“In the recent life of the NPP, the role he [C.K. Tedam] played in steadying the ship of our party when it was under threat from people with misguided ideas, about how to progress the work of our party, that is something that would feature very strongly in any narrative about C.K. Tedam,” the President said.

The leadership of the NPP in 2015, suspended its Chairman and General Secretary at the time, Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong, over allegations that their actions were inimical to the unity and victory of the party in the 2016 general elections.

Also suspended were NPP Second National Vice Chairman, Sammy Crabbe, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho–Tamakloe, a founding member of the NPP.

They were tagged as members of the Kufuor bloc in the NPP and anti-Akufo-Addo and accused of working for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, John DramaniMaham,a who was also then the incumbent President.

Paul Afoko, was accused of being a homosexual, a drug addict and an ex-drug convict, who had spent years in a UK jail, a charge he denied.

One Kofi Twum Boafo, currently a Presidential Staffer, later emerged apologizing to Mr Afoko, for cooking up the drug addiction and conviction claims to undo the NPP chairmanship contest.

Kwabena Agyapong, in particular, was accused of collecting a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV car gift from Mr. Mahama and bent on pushing Agenda 2020 with someone other than Akufo-Addo as the NPP candidate. He rebutted the claim.

Both Mr. Afoko and Mr. Agyapong, complained about mistrust and deliberate schemes by the Akufo-Addo team to prevent them from working as elected officials of the party.

Indeed, it was an open secret that ahead of the NPP Delegates Conference in Tamale, Mr. Akufo-Addo, and his team had worked tirelessly against Paul Afoko, preferring Fred Oware as the NPP National Chairman after Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, an Akufo-Addo loyalist was sidelined.

In Tamale, the NPP delegates who got frustrated by the indecision of Akufo-Addo, went in for Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong as General Secretary over Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, alias Sir John, who was then the incumbent.

With Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong in office, gross insubordinations were entertained by the council of elders of the party which included Mr Tedem.

Disciplinary actions were also overturned leading to several physical and armed attacks, as well as destruction of properties at the NPP headquarters on week basis.

A former Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Kwadwo Mpiani and Richard Winfred Anane, former Minister for Roads and Highways, as well as Health and Member of Parliament (MP) for Nhyiaeso, also had issues with Akufo-Addo’s handling of the NPP as flagbearer and separately complained and were tagged as anti-Akufo-Addo.

Even President Kufuor, was not spared in the disrespect, labeling and accusations.

But without mentioning names, Mr Akufo-Addo said: “In that difficult year of 2015”, Mr Tedam’s “strength, courage, and insistence on principle, tradition and culture of our party helped take us through the threat that was posed to the stability of our party and to the prospects of the victory of the party the year after”.

Nana Akufo-Addo further noted that: “Devoting the victory of 2016 to him [MrTedam] would not be out of place whatsoever because of the tremendous role he played in steadying the ship of our party in 2015.”

Addressing a delegation of elders of the family of the late C. K. Tedam and elders of the NPP at the Jubilee House when they paid a courtesy call on him to formally inform him of the passing of the statesman, Nana Akufo-Addo said credited the late Chairman of the party’s Council of Elders for the clever manner in which he resolved the internal crisis that bedevilled the party ahead of the 2016 elections, which the NPP eventually won.

The president, said MrTedam was the last link to the people who founded the NPP tradition and the current generation of NPP members, adding that the lessons that he gave the present generation was very far-sighted.

He announced that the late C.K. Tedam, would be given a state burial in his hometown in Paga, Upper East Region.

The spokesperson for the delegation, Colonel John Obibah Kuseh, in his address announced that the late statesman would be laid to rest on June 22, 2019.

He registered the sincere thanks of the family to the President for the honour done their late royal in offering to give him a state burial.