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It’s now clear that Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) is a victim of his party’s massive gains in the run-up to the December 7th, 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

That sudden massive Nduom political cult-figure certainly constitutes a major headache to President John Dramani Mahama and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Thus the only way possible to curtail the Nduom scare is by proxy usage of such state institutions like the Electoral Commission (EC), the Daily Graphic and lately the Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO) to do the hatchet bidding of President Dramani Mahama and his NDC cohorts.

President Dramani Mahama and especially his hangars-on at the presidency are beginning to feel the uncomfortable bargain in the case involving Dr. Nduom and the EC.

The disqualification of Dr. Nduom by the EC, Today can state on authority, was the first of the many machinations being employed by President Dramani Mahama to get Dr. Nduom out of the presidential race at all cost.

But President Dramani Mahama seems to have a real bargain in the on-going EC versus Nduom case at the High Court.

The stoical defence put up by Dr. Nduom’s lead counsel, Nii Ayi Kwei Otoo, on the first day sitting in that landmark case might have descended on President Dramani Mahama and his NDC that the court case could not come that easy for the EC.

So the need for Plan B!

That, Today discovered, is to use other State institutions like the EOCO and the Daily Graphic.

Yesterday, October 24, 2016, the Daily Graphic splashed on its front page that Dr. Nduom was being invited by the EOCO to come and account for the source of GH1.7 million nomination fees he paid for PPP parliamentary candidates and that of his own GH50,000.00 filing fees that he paid from a GN Bank account.

The story sought to create the impression that Dr. Nduom, who is the largest shareholder of GN Bank, was using deposits of customers to fund his political party.

Ironically neither Dr. Nduom nor PPP received any letter to that effect from the EOCO.

The Daily Graphic did not also bother to find out from Dr. Nduom the authenticity or otherwise of the EOCO’s claim.

Top editorial team members of Daily Graphic have since denied knowledge of any such story before the paper went to bed.

They were equally shocked to have seen the story on the front page of the paper yesterday morning.

The same Daily Graphic reported last Saturday, October 21st, 2016 that disqualified aspirants were hot because the police CID was on their heels.

That report was in stark contrast to Dr. Nduom’s meeting with the top hierarchy of the CID last Friday, a day before the Daily Graphic publication.

Ghana’s political history, especially during the period of Jerry John Rawlings’ Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and its quasi-military antecedent of NDC 1 are replete with the draconian usage of such State institutions, especially the EOCO, then known as Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to harass and torment many well-meaning Ghanaian businessmen and politicians who did not ascribe to the ideals of the P(NDC).

Today, President Dramani Mahama and his surrogates are re-enacting similar means to cow their political opponents, particularly Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, into submission.

But for the obvious chicanery, top PPP insiders believe if the EOCO were to conduct proper investigations, they would have found out that the PPP runs an account with GN Bank.

The sources of that account are very visible that any legally mandated State investigative agency like the EOCO would not have had any problem ascertaining the sources of PPP’s accounts at GN Bank.

Indeed it’s only the PPP that has its fully audited accounts with the EC; and so if the EOCO meant good, it would have ascertained easily every single source of PPP funding.

The rush to go into using another State institution like the Daily Graphic clearly offers an indication yet about how edgy the President and the Flagstaff House have become in the face of the Nduom surge in numbers in the run-up to the December 7 presidential polls.

Today has discovered that the PPP is being funded by party executives, members, sympathisers and other well-meaning Ghanaians who support the party’s proactive and pragmatic approach to national issues.

The paper established from sleuth hounding why Dr. Nduom has instantly become a political hit target.

Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrissu, himself confirmed Dr. Nduom was disturbing the NDC in northern Ghana at a recent forum organised by the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) in Accra.

Others are admitting the Nduom surge on the quiet.

The NDC thus believe with the kind of inroads being made by Dr. Nduom, the 2016 election could push for a second round which outcome as per history of run-offs in 4th Republic suggest that President Dramani Mahama will easily lose to any one of the two top candidates in a run-off.

Indeed President Dramani Mahama hates being tagged as the first 4th Republican President to have run a four-year term. Many political watchers have predicted that Dr. Nduom will automatically become the President if he should go to a run-off with any one of the two leading contenders.

John Dramani Mahama and the NDC are also aware of the scare that an Nduom run-off scenario portends.

But what President Dramani Mahama and his surrogates are scared stiff is being in a run-off with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

NDC insiders have hinted Today that “there is no way Dr. Nduom will support the NDC in a run-off” because in their estimation, Dr. Nduom has a certain cordial relationship with the NPP, with the grounds being that Dr. Nduom worked under an NPP administration then headed by President John Agyekum Kufuor.

Again, the NDC contends in a case scenario where Dr. Nduom refuses to endorse Akufo-Addo in a run-off, their intelligence (as per research made by the BNI and the National Security) suggests that more than 80% of PPP and Nduom supporters will vote Akufo-Addo and the opposition NPP.

So out of the two leading opponents—Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Dr. Nduom, John Dramani Mahama and the NDC seem to find Dr. Nduom easier to succumb to their Machiavellian game plan.

“Indeed what a wrong calculation!,” a top PPP man laughed off the NDC political calculation.

Therefore the only way to avoid all such heartaches is to get Nduom out of the race for the NDC to have an open one-one dirty, intimidating confrontation with the NPP, hoping that they will prevail by using their governmental and political machineries.

So far, it is evidently clear that President John Dramani Mahama and the NDC are over exploiting their incumbent advantage.

So the plot is thickening. The NDC permutation is to get Nduom out of the race to avoid any possible run-off in this year’s elections.