The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is not taking kindly to allegations that it has let loose its supporters to visit mayhem on innocent Ghanaians in the guise of taking over of public institutions.
The NPP questioned the truth in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) accusing the Akufo-Addo-led governing NPP for the post-election violence and takeover of state properties, saying the former (NDC) is only crying wolf where there is none.
The NDC at an earlier press conference accused President Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP leadership of allowing their supporters to unleash mayhem on its members and innocent Ghanaians, following their (Nana and NPP’s) electoral victory.
However, NPP deputy General Secretary, Nana Obiri Boahen, at a press conference in Accra yesterday, said the party could not be held responsible because the mandate to maintain law and order is given to the police.
He said the NDC is rather guilty of not doing anything when some NPP supporters were butchered in 2009, after it had taken over power from the NPP.
Nana Obiri Boahen asked the Police Administration to find perpetrators of the violence unleashed on Ghanaians, which led to some deaths at the time.
The NPP wants the police to act because according to the party, ‘crime has no expiry date’ and even insinuated that the police appeared to have ‘relaxed’ in fighting political-related crimes during the NDC regime – which came to an end on January 6, 2017.
Bloody Murders
Reacting to a recently-held NDC press conference which accused the NPP’s Invisible Forces of unleashing violence on its supporters, Nana Obiri Boahen, a lawyer, listed a number of crimes, including bloody murders, of NPP’s supporters which he said the police had not been able to investigate and deal with the perpetrators.
He particularly mentioned the much-talked-about Agbogbloshie killings of NPP supporters by perceived NDC hoodlums, in front of a police station; then NDC National Women Organizer, Anita de Sosoo, driving her vehicle through a group of NPP by-standers at Abomosu in the Atiwa District of the Eastern Region, Naaba Abdulai’s open confession that he and others kill people on a daily basis, as well as the shooting of NPP supporters at Point Blank by an NDC operative at the Castle, Osu, as some of the issues the police needed to revisit.
Decisive Action
Nana Obiri Boahen said that the NPP expected the police and the security agencies to act decisively in any spate of lawlessness, irrespective of the perpetrators’ political leanings, but it was clear the police only appear to find their ‘voice’ when the issues involve NPP supporters.
“We will remind the police under John Kudalor that they cannot suddenly discover themselves only when events involve suspected NPP supporters and sympathizers,” he said, adding, “Crime has no expiry date and we await what their response will be in these cases which we have recounted among several others.”
Supposed Takeovers
He said that the NPP had formally condemned any acts of lawlessness unreservedly and would not countenance any such actions by its members, adding that those leading the charge from the NDC camp are themselves guilty of the same offence.
“It is most shocking to have Kofi Portuphy lead the charge against the NPP about seizures. The NDC Chairman was one of the principal persons who masterminded or conducted the ‘foot-soldiers descent’ on state institutions and facilities in 2009,” Nana Obiri Boahen recounted, adding, “He, Portuphy, led the NDC hoodlums to physically take over NADMO and imposed himself on NADMO until President Mills formally requested him to take over.”
He said that when the NDC took over in 2009, they unlawfully seized two Land Cruisers belonging Nana Akufo-Addo; seized then outgoing President Kufuor’s cars; motivated some Ga youth to say Mr. Kufuor should not have an office on Ga land; ordered all NPP ministers to report to the Police Headquarters; confiscated outgoing ministers’ cars without refund, among others, and said the NDC cannot turn around to play the victim now.
NDC Lies
According to Nana Obiri Boahen, the NDC told a pack of lies about the NPP, particularly its (NPP’s) then candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, and that sent the NDC into opposition “but they still haven’t learnt their lessons.”
He said the NDC spent resources trying to portray now President Akufo-Addo as a violent and divisive person but failed miserably saying, “The vast majority of Ghanaian people who voted for the NPP saw through the lies of the NDC.”
The NPP Deputy General Secretary said that for the NDC to continue to cling onto the ‘warped’ idea that the Invisible Forces is the creation of President Akufo-Addo showed that the opposition party had not changed from the dirty politics, adding, “These intemperate and acerbic languages they had poured on the President defy common sense.”
Plagiarism Row
Nana Obiri Boahen justified President Akufo-Addo’s inaugural address which some critics claim parts were plagiarized. He said the president could not be held for academic fraud because the original source of the quote is unknown.
“The NDC and their apologists refer to portions of Nana Akufo-Addo’s inaugural speech and described his conduct as ‘intellectual dishonesty and academic fraud.’ The question to ask is who is the original source of the words used by President Akufo-Addo? Certainly not former President Bush. Those words were used by President Wildrow Wilson. Since that-high profile submission by President Wildrow Wilson, 13 US presidents have used those same words in their inaugural addresses so who has used whose words?
“The truth is that, the biographer of President Wildrow Wilson acknowledged that those words were not original from President Wilson. The original person who rendered that powerful sermon remains unknown. The importance of those words found expression in the speeches of 14 American presidents – the last being President George Bush. None of them made attributions because the original source remains unknown. That explains why President Bush was not accused of plagiarism,” the legal gem explained.
Pay Back
The NPP sent a signal that it was going to engage in mudslinging with the NDC if the opposition party continued to show disrespect to the president.
“As for Kofi Portuphy, Asiedu Nketia, Koku Anyidoho and their gang, we shall caution that from now on, if they throw mud on the president in whom such an unprecedentedly overwhelming majority have reposed their confidence, we will pay them back in equal measure.”
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