A former member of the defunct Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), retired Captain Felix Nii Okai, has stated that the leadership division of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has escalated as a result of vilification, intimidation, molestation and hostilities meted out to the perceived pro-Obed’s faction.

He said, the malicious attacks on the pro-Obed’s faction to the extent that some of the party activists were irked during the delegates congress held at the University of Ghana, Legon, cannot be swept under the carpet. And those who were manhandled should be pacified through the resolution of the divisions among the party activists. He urged the leadership of the party is to call a spade a spade to avoid deepening the crisis in the party.

According to him the more the top brass of the party fail to be sensitive to the leadership division by calling spade a spade and also to pacify those whose rights were violated, the more the party goes into annihilation. Speaking to the Chronicle on Saturday in an interview, the retired captain argued that the failure of the party executives to resolve the leadership crisis was being manifested in the recent by-elections.

“For the party to be more formidable, the council of elders of the party should sit up to probe what went wrong at their recent delegates congress to ensure that justice is done.”

Captain Okai said it was rather unfortunate that instead of being apologetic and sympathetic to those who were peeved, party members who have meted out these vitriolic attacks on the pro-Obed faction continue to mess up things.

According to him the game is now up for some people in the NDC not only to leave the party before they are flushed out but also to sit back to allow the party to re-galvanise in order to win 2004 general elections.

Analysing events in the party, Captain Okai argued that the founder of the party was more often than not perceived as messing up the party structures to the extent that the remotely controls the flagbearer of the party. The retired captain hinted that the crisis in the party could be attributed to the way it was metamorphosed from a military junta-the PNDC, to the NDC and that the party did not proceed on democratic lines in terms of the founding members accepting certain basic rules before its constitution was drawn up and unanimously approved.

Giving some of the genesis of the leadership problems, he said, “at the time when the PNDC was changed into the NDC, we had some people in the PNDC who were in positions to grab with both hands and so fought tooth and nail against introduction of new faces and new ideas into the party.” “Some of the arguments put forward by those people who fought tooth and nail against the introduction of both new ideas and faces were uncalled for,” said the former AFRC functionary.