The General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has stated that comments by former President John Agyekum Kufuor that Nana Akufo-Addo would win the 2016 general elections by some 58% was insincere.

He said such talk by the ex-president was intended to please his party’s flagbearer in order not to incur the party’s wrath.

Mr Asiedu Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito, made these comments on Accra100.5FM’s breakfast show, Ghana Yensom, Wednesday April 13, 2016.

Mr Kufuor had declared a 58% margin of victory in the November 7 poll during the NPP’s special congress held in Sunyani in December 2015.

But the former Wenchi West MP said the former president’s comments were a smart move to avoid being flayed by his own party.

“Do you know that when they [the NPP] went to Sunyani, their target was to oust him [Kufuor] from the party? That was their mind. So, being smart, he, upon arriving at the grounds, avoided criticising the unlawful suspensions in the party and clamoured for unity talks within the NPP, and said Akufo-Addo will win the election with 58%,” he alleged.

“My reason for saying Kufuor did not believe what he was saying was that he never scored 58%. President Rawlings fell just shy of that 58% mark, in spite of the support he enjoyed across the country; Mahama did not make that.

“So, if you look at the divided state of the NPP ahead of their congress in Sunyani, [a period] I expected them to be sincere with themselves and rather strive first for unity, that was when President Kufuor went proclaiming Nana Addo would make 58%.”

According to Mr Asiedu Nketia, Mr Kufuor’s recent call on Ghanaians not to give President Mahama a second term was consistent with his strategy to avoid provoking Akufo-Addo loyalists, who are raring to hound him out of the party.

“So, when I hear President Kufuor making such statements, I sympathise with him. I see no need arguing with him on that matter because he himself knows what he is saying is untrue,” he added.