A cold war is ensuing between two opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) stalwarts over the position of General Secretary in the upcoming congress of the party to select new leaders.
Current General Secretary, Jonhson Asiedu Nketia aka General Mosquito, has ‘attacked’ his deputy-in-charge of Operations, Koku Anyidoho, for claiming that he (Koku) has the endorsement of the incumbent to succeed him, since he (Asiedu Nketia) was no longer interested in the post.
Matters came to a head when Mr Koku Anyidoho said on Neat FM last Monday in Accra that, “The beautiful thing is that he (Asiedu Nketia) gave me his endorsement that he’ll not contest again, and that is the beauty of it.”
He added, “He’s given me his blessing to contest as General Secretary. I’m going in continuity and Asiedu Nketia’s legacy shall forever remain strong in the NDC.”
Mr. Asiedu Nketia responded to the claim by Mr Anyidoho, describing him as a lair.
He said on Asempa FM on Wednesday that he had not appointed anyone as his personal secretary to explain his decision to the public.
“Everyone should have known that the claim by Koku Anyidoho is not true. I’m not a kingmaker to decide who succeeds me, even if I decide not to contest,” General Mosquito countered.
“I was shocked when I saw the story online. I thought it was fake but Koku is not my personal secretary so he cannot make decisions for me,” he stressed.
General Mosquito said that if Mr Koku Anyidoho has any General Secretary ambition and wants to contest him, he should be bold to come out instead of perpetrating lies to make a case.
“Even if I won’t run again, I don’t have the power to appoint someone to be General Secretary,” he made it clear, before asking NDC members to treat Koku Anyidoho’s claims with contempt.
Earlier in the week, leadership of the NDC finally admitted that the party’s biometric register which it spent millions to compile, lacks integrity and cannot be relied upon for any meaningful internal elections.
They have officially decided to throw away the biometric register, which was compiled ahead of the 2016 general election, and start a new process to register NDC members manually.
NDC National Chairman, Kofi Portuphy, who made the admission at a news conference in Accra, said the National Executive Council (NEC) took the decision to dump the biometric register in favour of a new one to be manually compiled, having realized that it is not credible.
“The biometric register was well intended but was abused by our operatives and does not meet the standards required to make a credible one, I learnt people have invested heavily in the data-capturing book ready to do same when registration starts once again,” Mr. Portuphy said.
The NDC also used the news conference to announce a timetable for the party’s upcoming activities.
Between 18th and 24th October, 2017, there is going to be what they called ‘National outrage programme,’ followed by the ‘fresh registration’ for party members of all branches between November and December, 2017.
The branch elections are expected to be held on 2nd, 27th and 28th January, 2018, followed by constituency elections on 3rd, 24th and 25th March, 2018.
Regional Youth, Women and Zongo Caucus elections are expected to be held on 2nd and 3rd June, 2018 respectively, and slated the regional conference on June 9th, 2018.
National Youth and Women Conferences are set for 13th and 14th July, 2018 while National Executive Conference is scheduled for 27th and 28th July, 2018.