General News of Sunday, 13 August 2006

Source: Chronicle

Kufour blames cocaine scandal on NDC

President John Agyekum Kufuor who had remained quiet over the current cocaine scandal opened fire last Saturday pointing accusing figures at Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, a top National democratic Congress (NDC) man and one time propaganda secretary, and aide to Ex Vice Prez John Atta Mills as being the one who brought the suspected Venezuelan cocaine dealers into the country.

The president who was speaking at the inauguration of a new Greater Accra regional office of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) told a congregation of party supporters that the NDC man popularly called Rojo, was the one who facilitated the entry of the Venezuelans into Ghana under the pretext of doing business in the country.

“Now, we know the people who brought the cocaine into this nation.” He told cheering party supporters who hailed the president for his uncharacteristic outbursts.

According to the president, it was now clear and obvious that a campaign manager of a presidential aspirant of a major political party was the one who led the cocaine dealers into Ghana by helping them to acquire lands to build a factory.

Rojo, whom the President preferred to address as a ‘campaign manager of the Presidential candidate of a leading political party’, had earlier been embroiled in the controversies over the raging cocaine affair and had appeared before the Georgina Woode Committee last week. He was subsequently excused from the committee’s hearing after he had given his full testimony and effectively cleared.

“I am telling you that this man can be said to be in the leadership class of Ghana. He is the one who was trying to get somebody elected president of Ghana.

Supposing this man had succeeded and with partners like that, what we are hearing, where would Ghana’s economy be? Where would the honour of Ghana be?” The president fumed The President continued, “This was the man who once said that he can smell an elephant about to… but now, the new propagandists are saying, this is not a party matter?

What is not a party matter?

It is a party matter and the people of this country should hold this man to explain to the bottom, how come he brought his partners into this country and acquired lands for them to build a factory.”

Mr. Kufuor asked, “factory for what?” while the party supporters responded, “cocaine” He said, “NPP is a party of the people, a party of the future” charging the regional executives to hold themselves together and help keep off the propagandist.

He continued, “We must not allow our opponents who have been masters of propaganda to soil our image.

“Anytime something good is coming to Ghana, our opponents somehow find a way to foment trouble and put a bad image on the good things,” Mr. Kufuor screamed.

“There is a Member of Parliament who has been arrested in the US of America. I am not saying that he is guilty or not but the person is an individual,” Mr. Kufuor who described his generation as the luckiest, observed that ‘we are all witnesses in this country, when the person was arrested and even before he was put on trial in that country, our opponents propagandists picked the issue and described our party as ‘a cocaine party’ etc.

“Now we know the people who have brought cocaine into this country. It is not the NPP!

“It is somebody who was the campaign manager of a presidential candidate of a major party in this country who has admitted that he had partners from South America.

He led them to acquire lands in the Free Zones of Ghana to set up a factory.

He helped them to get a place at East Legon. The intelligence people had a hint on him. They invaded the house at East Legon to find cocaine valued at US$ 38 million,” he disclosed.

Referring to the main purpose of the meeting- the inauguration of the Greater Accra regional office to built by the Crabbe foundation, the President referred to Accra as the political nerve center for the other regions and urged the rank and file of the party executives to emulate them for the development of the party as well as the nation.

“Let this office be a place where good things would come out for the party and for our country. We should not allow anybody to come and take us for bad things.

Never should it happen,” he charged the executives.