The embattled Ashanti Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Augustine Nana Kwesi Andrews, says hate campaigns are being waged against him because Ashanti Council of Elders of the party, who are generally indigenous Ashantis are not comfortable that he, a Fanti, and his secretary, an Ewe, who are settlers should lead the party in the region.
Speaking in an interview with The Chronicle in Kumasi, chairman Andrews said had done nothing wrong yet a seven member Fact Finding Committee had issued a report making a series of allegations against him and his secretary, Kwame Zu.
He described the report as useless and baseless since it has no credibility. This is because the membership of the committee have their own individual biases against him and the Regional Secretary, besides the Council of Elders had no locus to form the committee in the first place.
The chairman, who was reacting to The Chronicle publication last week, said the duo (chairman and secretary) were at post and had not been indicted because they were not aware of any such report.
He indicated that he had been advised against appearing before the Committee by both the National Chairman and the General Secretary of the party, but decided to avail himself out of respect for the members.
According to Nana Kwesi, as he is simply called, he has not been served with a copy of the said report, let alone been briefed about its details, five months after the Committee had completed its so-called findings.
Days after the declaration of the 2020 election results by the Electoral Commission (EC), the former Ashanti Regional Security Co-ordinator, Mr. Enoch Amoako-Nsiah in an interaction with some media men alleged that some NDC Regional Executives compromised their positions to the detriment of their own party’s interest.
He maintained that some of the figures announced by the EC in the Ashanti region were doctored in favour of the NPP and, therefore, did not represent the true reflection of the results. Some members of the party in the region held the view that the poor performance of the party might have been due to the fact that NDC as a party was not able to put its house in order to collate its own results before the declaration of official results by the EC.
Mr. Amoako-Nsiah indicated in his encounter with the press men that, he was of the opinion that some of the Regional Executives might have sold out the fortunes of the party to their political opponents.
These allegations called for the appointment of the 7-member fact finding Committee by the Ashanti Regional Council of Elders. However, the Committee made recommendations without any evidence of the allegations by Amoako-Nsiah.
Nana Kwesi believed the development is an agenda to dent their image in the run up of the party’s upcoming Regional elections and saw it as part of a grand scheme by his opponents to frustrate his re-election bid at the impending elections.
The embattled Regional party chairman revealed that he was aware of a hate campaign that had been initiated against the backdrop that the Ashanti Council of Elders, who are generally indigenous Asantes, are not comfortable that both the Regional Chairman (Fante) and Secretary (Ewe) are settlers and believe his woes are as a result of political witch-hunting, tribalism and mere hatred.
He said the report of the Committee was to settle personal scores, as the Secretary to the committee had openly indicated he was against him (Nana Kwesi) and that the Committee was doing the bidding of interested parties in impending elections.
While the chairman of the Committee is vying for the Vice Presidential slot, Yaw Owusu Obimpeh, a former Regional chairman of the party is staging a comeback as the regional chairman, with Enoch Amoako-Nsiah, the prime accuser, also eyeing the Regional chairmanship slot of the party.
But Nana Kwesi has deflated the claim by the committee that he was incompetent and questioned who else could perform better after he had increased votes from 493,000 in 2016 to 653,000 in 2020 – representing 26.1% and worked to secure four parliamentary seats from three for the party.
Meanwhile, The Chronicle has gathered that “The Ashanti Project -Ashanti for Asantes” has been initiated by the Ashanti Caucus of the NDC to compel the Regional Chairman to step aside for an indigenous Ashanti to take over, while an Ashanti indigene is elected as the Regional Secretary.
While the proposed “The Ashanti Project” is allegedly being spearheaded by party gurus in the region, others such as Madam Betty Mould Iddrisu and Dr. Agyemang Mensah are opposed to this tribal bigotry and onslaught against chairman.
