The National Democratic Congress (NDC) grassroots wing, Action Movement have called the bluff of some party stalwarts whom but for their selfish interest the Mahama-Amissah Arthur-led administration will still be in government.
According to them the spirit the founder of the NDC Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings brought to capture the elections in 2008 was missing and that was down to some selfishness on the part of some members.
At a press conference held in Accra dubbed Fact finding from NDC ‘Action Movement to recapture power 2020’ “the Action Movement is extremely surprised that after our March 17 press conference, our hard working members were called, armed robbers, chicken thieves, (Kankpe Wuor) by Valerie Sawyerr a former Deputy Chief of Staff.
“Our former deputy chief of Staff (Valerie Sawyerr) campaigned openly for an independent candidate against the candidate the NDC party presented in the 2016 election, dividing the party in the Korle Klottey constituency, as a result the president failed to appeal to the numerous voters there.
The convenor of the movement, Mr Kojo Hamnya Kedzro said the movement is fully aware that “Valerie supported Armah Ashietey the former MP during the primaries and after losing she masterminded the former MP going to court.
According to them, “after failing, she then moved to Support the independent candidate. Upon several complains to the chief of staff, to the presidency, to the party chairman and to the regional former Minister and regional campaign coordinator lead by Sylvester Mensah, nothing was done about it. This shows how weak JM and his leadership was.
“We are only wondering that, if Valerie the former Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor in the last two administrations can say all these about our members, party executives, who organise electorates, guide them to vote for the party, protected the ballot boxes, follow the boxes to collation centres and gain victory for the party for the likes of Valerie to be appointed,” he stated.
“Then, is clear what advice she gave to the JM administration. We are thought from our homes well, so we do not insult elderly people. There is nothing the Action Movement said that was not the truth. Valerie claims to be a Christian and lying to the whole world that she did not campaign against the NDC parliamentary candidate.
Still no collation result
The NDC Action Movement said, some administrators of the party went to the collation centre with bare hands while the New Patriotic Party then in opposition came to the centre with five laptops for each constituency with modems and other gadgets and he said was the reason to show that some party leaders were not ready at the time.
“No wonder after 24hours we claim we are in a comfortable lead. Whiles NPP had finished collating all the results. Till now the NDC don’t have the finished collating results.
“How can JM give responsibility to someone who has ambition to be president in 2020 to handle a sensitive region like Greater Accra in 2016? If Sylvester could not work for us to win one region, how can he win the entire country for the NDC in 2020?” He asked rhetorically.
He added that ‘All the action movement is saying is that, in 2016 whiles Valerie Sawyer was destroying JM, dividing the party front in the constituency, Sylvester Mensah was exiting JM by refusing to provide the needed tools for the 2016 election as the Regional Campaign Coordinator’.
We also want to make it clear to all that, we are not against any grouping that worked for the NDC in the 2016 election, but we are against the party leaving its structures, and channeling funds to these organs and leaving the party executives empty as in the 2016 election.