On January 31, 2019, hooded masked National Security Operatives armed to the teeth and deployed in Police armored vehicles invaded the Bawaleshie Presbyterian polling station, attacked and shot some supporters of the NDC during the by-election that saw the New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament, Lydia Alhassan, elected after the death of her husband, Mr. Kyeremanteng Agyarko, who was the incumbent MP at the time.
Some supporters of the NDC sustained serious gunshot wounds whilst dozens suffered minor injuries.
Dr.Samuel Ofosu Ampofo has since been accused by his General Secretary Asiedu Nketia of being a coward hence does not deserve to lead the party into a crucial election such as the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Asiedu Nketia will be strangely vacating his General Secretary office to contest the incumbent Dr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo for the Chairmanship position.
He has been accusing his National Chairman to be a coward for not allowing the NDC supporters to retaliate, but Former Member of Parliament for Adenta Kojo Adu-Asare thinks otherwise.
Speaking on Ahotor 92.3 Fm’s afternoon political show dubbed Simpieso with host Emmanuel Martey a.k.a Alaska De Don, the former Adenta legislator said ” If Asiedu Nketiah’s son was shot at Ayawaso, he wouldn’t be making those comments”.
https://fb.watch/hkrRdYFkf7/?mibextid=NnVzG8
According to him, Mr Asiedu Nketiah was not even in the country when violence nearly characterized the by-elections.
The NDC will be electing new executives to mount the affairs of the party into the 2024 General elections where various positions will be up for grabs.
The National Chairmanship position will be hotly contested but Hon. Kojo Adu-Asare believes the right man to lead the NDC party to victory in 2024 as the National Chairman will be Dr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo because of his achievements in that office for the party and not Asiedu Nketia.
Ofosu Ampofo touts achievements under his leadership
Ofosu-Ampofo, National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has touted achievements chalked under his leadership.
“Under my tenure, the party has managed to reduce the one million vote deficit it suffered in the 2016 elections as well as reclaiming lost parliamentary seats which has resulted in a hung Parliament,” he affirmed.
Mr Ofosu, who is seeking re-election, noted that the current executives had collectively delivered on the mandate given to them in 2018 including ensuring Parliament had a Speaker who for the first time in history, was not a member of the ruling party.
“I can say as the leader of the party that it was through my effort and direction that we were able to achieve all this, where we have positioned the party now, we believe when we make arrangements like we are doing, for the first time we have had branch elections and they were incident free,” he asserted.
Mr Ampofo doffed his hat for regional and constituency executives who for the past three months had not slept at home, had been crisscrossing between Kumasi and Koforidua, worked hard to strengthen structures of NDC to elect branch executives and it was now left with constituency executives.
According to him, the current leadership of the NDC were building the party as ‘war machinery’ to enable the party win the 2024 elections convincingly because it had become the most attractive political party in the country due to the peaceful conduct of its internal electoral processes so far as basis for his assertion.
“On my re-election bid, I have been able to unify the party which has become a ‘weapon’ every political party needs such intervention which plays key role in the party’s success at the 2020 polls, having earlier suffered a record one million vote difference in the 2016 elections,” Mr Ampofo contended.
He revealed that those who contested former President Mahama for the flag bearer position were given jobs and through that unity of purpose, the party performed well at the 2020 polls and insisted NDC never lost that election but attributed the defeat to the Supreme Court ruling which did not uphold their case.
“We will not go to the Supreme Court in 2024 because we are strengthening the party base at the polling station level,” Mr Ampofo maintained.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh / Ahotoronline.com
