A former Ambassador to the United States of America, Daniel Ohene Agyekum, has stated that the report of the 7-member Fact-Finding Committee appointed by the Ashanti Council of Elders of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has not indicted any of the regional executives.
As a result, the Council of Elders and the Committee have no case against Nana Kwesi or any of the regional executives. He said the hullabaloo about a so-called report by a 7-member Fact
Finding Committee was “much ado about nothing.”
According to Chairman of the NDC Council of Elders, the Committee dealt with, what he called mere allegations, because it had, so far, not established any wrongdoing. The former Ashanti Regional Minister, who also once led the NDC in the region, told Abusua Nkomo host Kojo Marfo on Abusua FM that the accusers who leveled allegations of financial impropriety against the regional executives had not been able to substantiate them.
The career Diplomat said the 15-page report did not indicate any evidence from the 17 witnesses, including the prime accuser, Enoch Amoako-Nsiah, who appeared before the Committee. Mr. Ohene Agyekum said no one was able to prove or provide evidence to incriminate the Regional Chairman to the least of the executives in the region.
“Kojo Marfo, our party lost the plot because there was no proper coordination of activities before the election and during the same, and hence our bad performance,” the Chairman of the Council Elders stressed.
“Not even one witness could attest to financial impropriety against the regional executives,” he added.
Ambassador Ohene Agyekum said for now the accusations were “mere allegations” unless otherwise proven by the Committee.
He was reacting to the brouhaha over allegations by Mr. Enoch Amoako-Nsiah, a former Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator, that some NDC regional executives compromised their positions to the detriment of their own party’s interest, and that the said regional executives might have sold out the fortunes of the party to their political opponents during the 2020 elections.
Ambassador Daniel Ohene Agyekum expressed surprise at the attitude of the committee member who gave the report to unknown persons in the party. He, however, rejected the claim by the Eagle Eye group that leaders in the Ashanti NDC compromised the party’s electoral fortunes by going for money.
The report is yet to be made public, let alone served on the regional executives against whom the allegations were preferred.
Meanwhile, Dr. Samuel Sarpong, the former Regional Minister for Ashanti and Central regions and Chairman for the NDC Fact-Finding Committee for Election 2020, has denied putting up names in the report the NDC compiled after Election 2020, as having been compromised with money, thus denying the party the chance to garner the 1 million votes it targeted in the Ashanti Region.
The leaked report looked at reasons why the party did not gain ground in every aspect of the elections in the Ashanti Region, including parliamentary elections, even though the party got over 600,000 votes, as compared to 400,000 popular votes it gained in the 2016 polls.
Dr. Sarpong told Kojo Marfo that “no where does the report state that persons were bribed or compromised with money.”
Dr. Sarpong further noted that 17 persons who came before the committee could not put any evidence forward to suggest that money changed hands.
He stressed that the reason for the investigation was purposely to unravel what may have occasioned the low votes the NDC got from the 2020polls in the Ashanti Region.
Following that, Dr. Sarpong, also a former Managing Director of the State Housing Company Limited (SHCL), has described claims that the committee was set up primarily to investigate bribery allegations as outrageous.
“Kojo, the Council of Elders of the NDC in Ashanti, as a responsible body of the party, commissioned a committee to investigate the performance of the party in the 2020 polls, and as part of the investigations, we called persons who had made allegations to knowing why the party failed to get votes we expected, to appear before it and nowhere were evidence adduced to suggest leaders of the party were bought with money to influence outcomes against us,” Dr. Sarpong intimated.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Alhassan Tapsoba, a former Deputy Coordinator of the then Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Development Agency (GYEEDA), has condemned tribal sentiments creeping into the party in an interview with Boss FM’s Kofi Appiah in Kumasi.
His condemnation was based on a proposed “Ashanti project” which is intended to champion a bid to ensure that all persons who aspire for positions at the regional level in the impending regional elections were Asante indigenes.
Mr. Johnny Osei Kofi, a former Deputy Chief of Staff under the former Mahama administration, has confirmed the emergence of the tribal agenda dubbed “The Ashanti Project” in the NDC, stressing that the idea that an Asante leads the NDC in the Ashanti Region was not his personal idea.
“It is something we started back in 1992, with even Chairman Rawlings,” he has reportedly said, and explained further that “it was a deliberate idea to get more Ashantis leading the party here, just to make it attractive.”
Mr. Osei Kofi stressed that the fact that “we (NDC) abandoned that idea over the years does not mean we cannot go back to it. It is something some of our big men in Accra support,” and therefore, he would not shy away from it today or tomorrow.
He questioned if it was possible to go to the Volta Region and see Osei Kofi leading the party as Chairman, or go to the north and see Osei Tutu as Chairman there.
“Why should Ashanti be different,” he queried, and concluded that he was stating facts and not preaching tribal politics.
But Alhaji Tapsoba saids 99 percent of the rank and file of the NDC were not happy about the ridiculous tribal development, which was dragging the good people of the Ashanti Region into the tribal politics being pursued by a few people.
He said there could be “a volcanic eruption” in the party if tribalism was encouraged to take centre stage in the party’s activities.
Alhaji Tapsoba has, therefore, called on Mr. Johnny Osei Kofi to retract his position on the issue of the “Ashanti Project” and apologise to the party’s following.
Mr. Donkor Fuseini, a former District Chief Executive (DCE) for Sekyere Afram Plains, has also told Ohenenana Kwame Amoh on Okay FM’s “Ade Akye Abia” programme that the Ashantis for Asante Project was a personal agenda of Johnny Osei Kofi and a few others who had vested interest in the leadership passions, which agenda, he said, would not work.
He said Johnny Osei Kofi got it wrong when he inferred that it was not possible to go to the Volta Region and see Osei Kofi leading the party as Chairman, or go to the north and see Osei Tutu as Chairman there.
Mr. Donkor Fuseini mentioned Mr. Ade Coker, a Fante, as the Greater Accra Regional Chairman and one Gyapong Cudjoe, an Ashanti, as Volta Regional Chairman for the NDC for 12 years.
“NDC’s concern for now should be how to mobilize and canvass for more votes in Ashanti region party in order to move the party forward and not a mere campaign for an Ashanti to lead,” he told Ohenenana Kwame Amoh, the radio host.
The former DCE said the Ashanti NDC operates on cooperative lines, and therefore the party was basically for committed and loyal people, irrespective of educational or tribal background.
