-With Rawlings As The High Priest?

A Spokesman for Dr. Obed Asamoah, the former chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Okran Mensah, has described the NDC as a 'deities' party with Former President John Rawlings as the high priest, 'Okomfo' or 'Wulomo'.

According to Mr. Mensah, over the years, Mr. Rawlings had physically and verbally abused Dr. Asamoah and members of the party for their dissenting views.

He said however, that his boss, Dr. Asamoah, kept faith with the NDC and the former president, hoping that he would reform.

Mr. Mensah made these remarks on some private radio stations in Accra, prior to the NDC's press conference of yesterday, with suggestions that the party was going to expose the motive behind the resignation of his boss, Dr. Asamoah.

Mr. Mensah stated categorically that Dr. Asamoah would never return to the NDC as a member even when he is approach by the current executive. According to him, his assertion is based on a number of events that have occurred within the NDC on a number of occasions, where members who had dissenting views with the former president were brutalized, assaulted, intimidated and asked to leave the party if they so wished.

He recounted Former President Rawlings' infamous 'Swedru Declaration' of Former Vice President John Evans Atta Mills as the party's presidential candidate in the 2000 general elections, which eventually caused their defeat in the said election. He explained that the said declaration led to the breakaway of the Goosie Tanoh Reform Movement, which he believed was part of the cumulative factors that led to the defeat of the NDC in the 2000 elections.

Mr. Mensah also recounted the selection of the party's presidential candidate in 2002 at the Legon campus, where members who supported Dr. Kwesi Botchwey were assaulted and brutalized, resulting in the resignation of Mr. Kofi Asante, a Member of Parliament (MP), from the party.

Explaining further, Mr. Mensah alleged that Dr. Asamoah, who openly supported Dr. Botchwey during the 2002 congress against former president Rawlings' candidate, had since never seen eye to eye with Former President Rawlings. He added that Mr. Rawlings' hostility toward Dr. Asamoah was carried to the 2004 elections, with the former president hijacking Professor Mills' campaign, thereby making the party's presidential candidate impotent.

He stressed that his boss had, on several occasions, expressed reservations about the conduct of the former president, but maintained that for the sake of the party, he had compromised his stand to move the party forward. However, what broke the camel's back, according to Mr. Mensah, was the historic " I Would Pray For Their Souls" delegates' congress at the EREDEC Hotel at Koforidua.

Dr. Obed Asamoah's spokesman explained that the amount of intimidation that was meted out to his boss by NDC hooligans, urged by the former president, could not be accepted in any civilized political party. He added that the most annoying aspect of the issue was how a leading member of the party, Dr. Tony Aidoo, and the 1st Deputy General Secretary of the party, Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, justified such hooliganism and intimidation. He concluded that the NDC, with its current structure as 'gods' party, with Former President Rawlings presiding over as the 'high priest', 'Okomfo' or 'Wulomo', would move heaven and earth to win political power in the country.