General News of Monday, 26 February 2018

Source: starrfmonline.com

NDC won’t release Abuga Pele if it wins power – George Lawson

Nii Lante made comments suggesting the NDC will release Abuga Pele should they regain power Nii Lante made comments suggesting the NDC will release Abuga Pele should they regain power

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has disassociated itself from comments by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodoo that the party will release the former national Coordinator of GYEEDA, Abuga Pele, if it recaptures power in the 2020 general elections.

Abuga Pele and Philip Assibit are serving 6 and 12 years jailed terms respectively for causing financial loss to the state.

The court presided over by Justice Afua Serwaa Asare Botwe found both accused persons guilty of all the nineteen counts leveled against them by the prosecution.

Mr. Assibit has since disclosed that he would be appealing what he termed as “wrong” conviction handed him.

“It is unfortunate but I can only say that this will not dampen the spirit of the NDC. Between 2001 and 2004, they sentenced Tsatsu Tsikata, Dan Abodakpi, Ibrahim Adam and Kwame Peprah. It did not stop us from winning elections in 2008. We are going to win the elections and bring Abuga Pele out,” Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye told Accra based Citi FM.

In his reaction however, George Lawson, a Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, dismissed the Odododiodioo MP’s comments as untenable explaining that the NDC as a party does not subscribe to it.

“That’s not the position of the party,” he told Starr Midday News host Kwaku Obeng Adjei Monday February 26, arguing he does not see why the party will release Mr. Pele when it initiated the court action against him and others for causing financial loss to the state.

“We are against corruption and if a court of competent jurisdiction has gone through this matter and has come with a verdict, why should we revert it? Not at all,” he emphasized.

Mr. Lawson however hinted that the party will soon break its silence on the issue via an official statement.