General News of Friday, 6 September 2013

Source: The Informer

Kufuor faction blames Akufo-Addo for Gabby’s attack on SC

Sources close to ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor have hinted The Informer that, the former President’s Asante- faction in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) feels that Nana Akufo-Addo’s cousin, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko’s comments about the Supreme Court were more serious than that of Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata.

The sources said “what Gabby said is likely to be the view of Nana Akufo-Addo and; that, Mr. Kufuor thinks that the Akufo-Addo faction is still trying to bring the party (NPP) into disrepute, having realized that last Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling has effectively ended their control over the party”.

“Nana Addo and his Akyem group have destroyed the party with their bad utterances so much so that, the NPP is no more attractive for people to join, and once Nana Addo has been shown his real size by the Supreme Court, those of us on Mr. Kufuor’s side will teach them bitter lesson”, an aide to former President Kufuor (name withheld) told this paper.

“They have succeeded in destroying the chances of their man (Nana Addo) through arrogance and disrespect for persons like former President Kufuor, Dr. Wereko-Brobby, Dr. Nyaho –Nyaho Tamakloe and others; and we are not prepared to countenance these silly behaviours this time round.

The party does not belong to Nana Addo and his Akyem group, and those of us on Mr. Kufuor’s side will do everything to restore the spirit of the party, by instilling discipline”, he added.

Below is published unedited what Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has put on his facebook wall and published in page 6 of Monday’s Ghanaian Observer newspaper.

Election Petition Verdict Was “Corrupt Judgment”- Gabby

Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko says Thursday’s verdict on the election petition case was a “farcical” and corrupt judgment”.

“This was a corrupt judgment, and I say so without apologies”, the Danquah Institute Executive Director wrote on his facebook wall. Mr. Otchere-Darko, a cousin to the 2012 presidential Candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said the judgment by the nine-member panel of the Supreme Court was “potentially dangerous to our democracy”.

The nine Justices, by majority decision, affirmed President John Mahama’s election as “valid” after hearing the case for eight months. Nana Akufo-Addo conceded to Mr. Mahama hours after the verdict was announced on August 29, 2013.

He said even though he “disagreed” with the judgment and was also “disappointed” by it, he nonetheless “accepted” it, so the country could move on. The former Attorney General also urged all his supporters to accept the judgment peacefully.

Otchere-Darko has also advised the party to “ignore the judiciary; they can’t be bothered to undertake their primary duty of defending the Constitution. Let us work to do what we need to do to avoid problems with future elections”.

He however clarified that; “The fact that I totally disagree with a decision of the Court does not mean I do not accept it. Justice is not what I want it to be. But, I will not stop condemning what I find to be wrong. I’m entitled to my opinion as much as the 9 justices were and I maintain that what they did was farcical and the decision was a corrupt one, disrespectful of the Constitution of the Republic”.

According to him, “let them do me in for contempt, after all Grandpa Danquah died in jail for standing by his convictions”.