News:
August 15, 2014
Member of Parliament for South Tongu in the Volta Region , Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has equated the National Headquarters of the opposition New Patriotic Party to the Gaza Strip in Palestine and war-ravaged Iraq.
Okudzeto Ablakwa asserts headquarters of the largest opposition party in the country, has made its way to the front pages of newspapers with some catchy headlines in recent times, for all the wrong reasons.
“…when you are looking for Gaza and Iraq in Ghana, the Address is the NPP Headquarters…the last time, we were told the police had to be called in when the old guards at the party HQ were being replaced. There was bloodletting. This time, thugs stormed the HQ again to disrupt a Press Conference being addressed by the Chairman, Paul Afoko,” he recounted.
But to him, what is more worrying besides the violent issues, are the allegations of corruption bandied about by the NPP’s National Chair.
“I find it disturbing that a secret dollar account would be opened` in the name of the party but elected executives are not signatories to it. Another level of corruption is the award of contracts by party executives and functionaries to themselves”
“…if that is what they are doing with the contribution and dues of over four million supporters, what would they do to the taxes of Ghanaians, should they be voted into power?” the South Tongu Law Maker quizzed.
Okudzeto Ablakwa, who also doubles as the Deputy Education Minister in charge of Tertiary Institutions, was contributing to a panel discussion on Radio Gold’s “Alhaji and Alhaji” Programme on fallout of the Press Conference organized by Paul Afoko and the NPP’s General Secretary, Kwabena Agyapong last Tuesday.
A press conference called by the two turned bloody when some unknown thugs wielding cudgels and machetes stormed the NPP Headquarters and disrupted the press briefing. It took police intervention to calm things down.
The newly elected National Executives were deemed to be scheming to scuttle the presidential ambition of the party’s 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo.
Speaking to the issue, the NDC MP for South Tongu called for the immediate arrest of the perpetrators who nearly caused mayhem and subsequently punished in accordance with the laws of the land.
“…We must not create a situation where at the NPP HQ, laws do not apply. You cannot come with machetes and guns to cause mayhem and be walking free,” Okudzeto Ablakwa maintained.
Peacefmonline.com