A book launch aimed at the exposing the perceived corruption and ineptitude of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government yesterday plunged the National Democratic Congress (NDC) into an abyss of suspicion when the author of the book failed to turn up. After the sparse audience, which was dominated by journalists and NDC big wigs had waited for over an hour, the author, a Kwasi Sarpong failed to appear at the conference room of the Teachers Hall where the launch was to take place.

And though speaker upon speaker ?swore? that Mr. Sarpong had been whisked off to another place by unforeseen circumstances, most of the journalists murmured their suspicion that the book was planned, sponsored and written by the NDC disguised in the pen of Kwasi Sarpong.

What tended to give credence to the suspicion was that, the NDC threw its full weight behind what a supposedly private person had done. The hall was draped in NDC ribbons and balloons while party gurus such as Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, Dr Kwabena Adjei, John Mahama, Dr Kumbuor, shadow vice President Martin Amidu and Ms Ama Benyiwa Doe took center stage. The Speeches delivered at the function were further revelation that the NDC had chosen to hide behind Sarpong to chronicle their attacks into a book with the hope of achieving some credibility for the work.

Dr Kwabena Adjei, MP for Biakoye and former cabinet Minister, stepped forward to claim association with the author claiming that he attended school with him. But his explanation that unforeseen circumstances had whisked Sarpong off elsewhere was taken with a pinch of salt. Only hours before the launch, a voice said to be that of the author has stoutly defended the book on Peace FM, an Accra radio station.

Launching the book, John Mahama, the NDC Director of Communication and a Member of Parliament said ?since the inaugural address of President Kufuor on January 7, 2001, he has never mentioned ?zero tolerance for corruption?.? He claimed that the NPP government had, as a whole, abandoned the policy of fighting corruption, especially in its own backyard. And the ?slogan is missing from the lexicon of the NPP,? Dr Mahama stressed.