A flagbearer aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has said that he would win the party’s presidential primary slated for November 4, 2023.
Corroborating the claim, Dr. Akoto noted that given the vision that he had so far espoused, he was the only aspirant who had clearly shown the way as to how he intended to diversify the country’s agricultural sector through policies and programmes to turn Ghana’s economy around and take Ghanaians out from the perennial hardships that they go through.
Interacting with a cross-section of the Ghanaian media at his campaign office yesterday, after placing third on the ballot paper in the NPP presidential primary, scheduled for November 4, Dr. Akoto said he was Ghana’s hope for the future, and, therefore, asked the delegates to ignore the intimidations and undue influences that the other aspirants were employing and massively come along with him.
“I am more energised than ever before to bear the flag of the NPP and go on to win power for the party. If you look at all the candidates contesting the NPP flagbearer position, who has a better message than mine? My vision for the NPP and that for Ghana inspires hope, and that is why hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians are urging me on to go all out and fight until I win power for them. I can’t disappoint them,” he noted.
He added: “I am Ghana’s hope. I have already laid out the broader picture of my vision. As the campaign progresses, a lot of Ghanaians have assured me of their support, and I ain’t backing down.”
He said all that he required from the leadership of the NPP was a level playing field for all the competing candidates to showcase what they had to Ghanaians for them to make informed decisions.
“We were five going into the November 4 polls, but one has backed down. An impression has been created that the party machinery is skewing things to favour a particular candidate. The leadership of the party must create a free environment devoid of any intimidation to allow delegates of our great NPP to decide who should lead the party going into election 2024. With that, it is easier to close our ranks, come together, and support whoever won the primary,” he averred.
Dr. Akoto, who is a former two-term Member of Parliament (MP), placed 4th in the NPP Special Delegates Conference, held on Saturday, August 26, 2023, surprising many political pundits and pollsters.
He is expected to intensify his campaign in the coming weeks, as he re-strategises ahead of the NPP November 4 ‘showdown’.
More than 200,000 party delegates are expected to exercise their franchise in the much-publicised election.
Dr. Akoto, who has worked in the UN systems for over 18 years, according to sources close to his campaign team, has targeted more than half of the votes of the delegates who will decide who should lead the NPP going into the 2024 General Elections.
By Stephen Odoi-Larbi
