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A senior member of the Ashanti Regional communication team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abass Nurudeen says he is shocked by the decision of one of the party’s communicators to defect to the opposition New Patriotic Party.

Nurudeen in a statement on Thursday said, “I certainly did not know what his [Awal Mohammed] real motives were but considering how spirited he defended the party on radio, nobody, in his wildest imagination, would believe he would pitch camp with our bitterest political opponents at this crucial moment.”

He said the occurrence was unfortunate for the party in the Ashanti Region but exposed the plight of NDC communicators in the region.

Abass Nurudeen lamented that the former NDC communicator “was doing 10 radio stations a week on the average at his own expense but has been unemployed for four years.”

“So how did anyone expect a married man with two kids like Awal to survive if the ruling party cannot take proper care of its working foot soldiers. What on earth will be the motivation to keep dying for it? But then All this is as a result of leadership paralysis on the communication from in the Ashanti region.”

Awal Mohammed, who was the Deputy National Communications Officer for Zongo Caucus, the official wing of National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Zongo communities on Wednesday announced his defection to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). He his defection was based on his “principles and convictions”.

He said he was disappointed the NDC did not state any policy to address concerns of the Zongo community in its recently launched manifesto. Awal Mohammed added that he believed the as a party had failed to tackle the high unemployment situation in the country resulting in untold hardship on many people.

But Abass Nurudeen in his statement said “I do appreciate the fact that different people play different roles to keep the party going but choosing to be a communicator exposes one to a whole lot of hazards and if there is nothing to show at the end of the day then it gives real cause for concern.”

“As a party, I think it is past time that we instituted welfare schemes to incentivize our rank and file lest we run the risk of losing some of our finest.

This is a wakeup call to the powers that be,” his statement concluded.