General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has explained why there were no representatives from his party at the 26th National Delegates’ Conference of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to him, the invitation letter arrived at the party’s headquarters on Thursday when the party was preparing towards the one-week memorial of the death of their 2012 and 2016 Vice Presidential Candidate, Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur on Friday.
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This notwithstanding, Mr Asiedu Nketia noted that he personally informed the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who was present at the memorial service on Friday, July 6, 2018, that the party would be absent.
“You know the NDC will not absent themselves from such important events like this because it will give the party the opportunity to, at least, inform the president about his bad governance. We received the letter on Thursday and we had already planned towards the one-week observation.
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“We tried all we can to, at least, go for the Congress but we couldn’t because we had to all be at the memorial service of our dear former Vice President. Fortunately for us, Dr Bawumia was at the event on Friday and I informed him that our party will be absent and so he should inform his party”, he said on Accra-based Okay FM.
As has been a custom with political congresses in Ghana, opposition parties are invited to deliver solidarity messages.
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At NPP’s 2018 Annual National Delegates’ Conference held at the Koforidua Technical University (KTU), some opposition political parties namely People’s National Convention (PNC), Progressive People’s Party (PPP), National Democratic Party (NDP), Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) were present to deliver their well wishes.
Most of the political parties congratulated the NPP government for the progress made so far.
When the master of ceremony, called out for the NDC, nobody turned up.
But the NDC chief GS wondered why Dr Bawumia did not inform his party members about the absence of the NDC.
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He believes it was a deliberate attempt by the party to make the NDC unpopular.
“But I was shocked when Dr Bawumia didn’t inform them that we will be absent. So, is he telling me that he never heard them mentioning NDC and why we didn’t show up? I’m still shocked and still wondering why he didn’t tell them. I don’t think he forgot. I believe he did that just to discredit us and he (Bawumia) is the reason why people are still insulting us as to why we didn’t show up at the Congress” he said.