March 31, 2008

Press Release

Reaction To NPP’s Statement On The Fadama Incident

The Office of Professor John Evans Atta Mills, NDC Leader and Presidential Candidate, is setting the records straight as regards the incident that took place in front of the Chief Imam’s residence at New Fadama on Friday, March 28, 2008.

We are not in the least surprised that Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, via the distortions put out by Dr.Kobina Arthur Kennedy, are trying very hard to misinform the public and hopefully give a tinge of survival to their struggling campaign.

Dr. Kennedy’s distortion-of-a-statement read in part;

“The thugs who were in the company of the NDC leader, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, were apparently returning with him from a mini political rally held nearby. As confirmed on radio Friday evening by Mr Koku Anyidoho, Prof. Mills’ Communication Director, the Prof. Mills convoy chose to disregard the advice of the police officers on duty to the NDC to take a different route, since vehicles and supporters of the NPP were temporarily on the street immediately in front of the Chief Imam’s office.

After defying the orders of the law enforcement officers, a group of raging NDC thugs, led by Collins Dauda, the Member of Parliament for Asutifi South, stormed the Chief Imam’s building, charging towards Nana Akufo-Addo and his entourage, who were then making their way down the stairs after their meeting with the Holy Man.”

It is a matter of fact that Professor Mills was accompanied to the Chief Imam’s residence by high ranking members of the party, and met by a very large crowd of party supporters.

When Dr. Kennedy, in typical NPP name-calling style, talks about Professor Mills being in the company of thugs, it is quite clear that the likes of Dr. Arthur Kennedy are giving a different meaning to the word “thugs” because there were no thugs on the side of the NDC and Professor Mills certainly did not have thugs around him.

Also, Koku Anyidoho, never said on any network that Prof Mills’ convoy chose to disregard the advice of the police officers.

What Koku Anyidoho said was that, the NDC refused to allow the police to condone the indiscipline of Akufo-Addo and the NPP, which attempted to prevent them from using the shortest route out of the place.

Indeed, the selfsame Arthur Kennedy, who in his release, sought to create the impression that the NPP did no wrong in illegally blocking the road, on Joy FM this morning, recanted and accepted that his party acted wrongly.

Obviously, Dr. Arthur Kennedy, who was not at Fadama, and who was misled into thinking that Akufo-Addo and his handful of NPP supporters had the law on their side, must have found out over the weekend that, he passed judgment on the NDC too hastily hence his change of mind.

The Spokesperson for the Chief Imam, this morning on Peace FM, made it public that if the NPP had stuck to the 10.30 a.m. time given them, there would have been no incident because they would have been gone before the 11.30 a.m. time given the NDC.

Reacting to the what the spokesperson for the Chief Imam said, Dr. Arthur Kennedy said that the issue of the NPP keeping to their time was “irrelevant” and that the NPP had the option of either keeping to the time or not and they chose not to.

It is this selfsame Dr. Kennedy, who in his distortion-of-a-statement, is trying to ride a high horse of purity and calling Professor Atta Mills and the NDC names.

The issue of Akufo-Addo and the NPP not respecting the time given them, borders on nothing but gross indiscipline and disrespect for the Chief Imam and the way he chooses to allot his time to his visitors.

Obviously, the Vice President’s fight against indiscipline has not been heard by Akufo-Addo and the NPP.

Professor Mills and the NDC is not unaware of the fact that Akufo-Addo and the NPP, unable to reach out to the electorate because of the way Professor Atta Mills is touching the hearts and minds of Ghanaians with his I Care For You message, are trying very desperately to tag the NDC as a violent party by orchestrating such incidents and then rushing to the media with distortions in order to redirect the onward march of the NDC Leader.

Professor Atta Mills and the NDC last Friday refused to be intimidated by the indiscipline of Akufo-Addo and the NPP and the party is happy that it got the police to do the right thing by getting Akufo-Addo and his NPP to move their cars from the middle of the road and making it possible for others to use the road.

The NDC will not allow itself to be intimidated in any way by any untoward acts of Akufo-Addo and the NPP and if it is part of their modus operandi to intimidate the NDC, ride roughshod over Ghanaians, and go ahead to use such tactics to hijack the mandate of the people of Ghana, they better rethink their strategy because it won’t work.

Professor Atta Mills is committed to a clean election that will allow the will of Ghanaians to reign supreme and that position has not changed.