How NPP Was Raped Dry ...Party Buried In Serious Debt As 150 Pick-Ups, 40 Cross Country & 10 Salon Cars Have Gone Missing

The truth about how the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has been managed in the past, is beginning to emerge and the story does not speak well of those who were in-charge of the largest opposition party in the last two general elections; i.e. the 2008 and 2012 respectively. It is now very clear that the party machinery itself; from the National Headquarters, through to the Regional, Constituency and Polling Stations, was shoved aside with another group made of friends and family members of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the then flagbearer, hijacking everything including, the presidential campaign with its huge resources, especially cash. Today, the NPP is saddled with debts running into several millions of Ghana Cedis, for vehicles numbering about 200 and other party assets that cannot be traced. Insiders, have told this paper that the new Executives of the Party, led by Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong, are at disbelieve the sad state of the party handed over to them by the old executives, led by Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and Kwadwo Owusu-Afrieyie. All fingers point to the camp of the 2012 flagbearer of the party, Nana Addo. The camp is alleged to have received campaign funds and expended the same on behalf of the party. In fact, a member of the old executives of the party, was quoted as saying that �all traffic flowed in the direction of the flagbearer�s camp and that we were virtually redundant as party executives.� The same former member of the National Executive is said to have advised the new executives; �You have only six months to do what you want to do. After that when the flagbearer is elected, everything will go to his camp and you will have nothing to do.� At the Tamale Conference where the new executives were elected, there was hardly any report from the treasurer of the party; Madam Esther Ofori. A half page statement she is said to have read at the venue, was not even given to the new executives and can since not been traced. But it cannot be the defeated treasurer�s fault. She hardly received any money or disbursed any money. Everything was done above their heads. The truth according to the insiders is that the old executive, really had nothing to handover to the new. At the first National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the new executives, the insiders told The Herald that it was revealed that all the vehicles for the party�s 2012 campaign were bought and registered in the name of a private holding company, even though the bills were sent to the party for settlement. None at the meeting, could tell the whereabouts of some 150 pick-up vehicles, 40 SUVs and 10 salon cars and the 2012 flagbearer, who was in the meeting was reported to have advised the new executives to meet with two of his cousins to sort out the matter. There is enormous pressure on the new executives to open nominations for the flagbearership position, ostensibly as a ploy to shift the power base of the party to the flagbearer�s camp. But the party is yet to reconstitute its National Council, which is mandated by the party�s Constitution to give the National Executives their orders to start the process of choosing the next flagbearer. Also, the National Executives are arguing that in view of the Electoral Commission�s (EC�s) decision to start the registration exercise this June, if nominations of the flagbearership are opened now, it will distract party officials from focusing on the voters register, instead of policing the exercise keenly. The Herald, is meanwhile working on details of the debt that the NPP is saddled with. But insiders say it runs into million of Ghana Cedis.