The Former chairman of the NDC Media and Communication Committee and Education Minister, Ekow Spio-Garbrah, says the NPP is growing goose pimples over a Professor Evans John Atta Mills’ threat to Kufour’s presidency and is supporting the candidature of his opponent, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey.

Spio-Garbrah said the NPP knows that besides being very popular and having won over 45 per cent of votes in the 2000 elections, Prof. Mills does not have “any excess baggage” as is the case of Dr. Botchwey hence the campaign by the NPP and its allies in the media to support Dr. Botchwey and run down Prof. Mills. Speaking on a local radio station in Kumasi, Spio-Garbrah said it is funny that the NPP has made it as its duty to convince the NDC to choose Dr. Botchwey as its candidate in the presidential elections and asked whether the opponent can decide for his adversary what arsenal or weapons to use.

He said “It is like Kotoko players asking Accra Hearts of Oak to field a particular set of players for a football match involving the two teams. This is incredible”. Spio Garbrah cautioned NDC delegates not to fall for the bait that has been laid by the NPP and make an informed and wise choice if they do not want a preferred candidate of the NPP to become the flag-bearer of the NDC.

He said the NPP campaign of support for the candidature of Dr. Botchwey has assumed such an alarming proportions that Kwabena Okerechire, NPP MP for Nkawkaw, has stated publicly on a State television that if he were an NDC delegate, he would vote for Dr. Botchwey. “Prof. Mills has won over large member of floating voters and is set to win the votes of a large chunk of voters from the CPP Nkrumaist groups which makes him a serious threat to the Kufour presidency and the NPP, hence the attempt to run him down”. Spio-Garbrah noted that all the anti-NDC newspapers are supporting Dr. Botchwey and said this is an indication of the formidable threat Prof. Mills poses.

He lashed out at The Statesman for describing the former Vice-President, Prof Mills, as a “poodle” and called on the NPP leadership to condemn the story in its entirety. He said “The Statesman belongs to Nana Akufo-Addo, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who is a high-ranking member of the NPP and I expect him and his government to condemn the story in its entirety”. Spio-Garbrah said presently Prof. Mills is in Brazil as the only Africa United Nation’s tax expert at an international conference adding that the story has put the former Vice-President in a very bad light. “From Indonesia through to Canada, the news item can be found on the Internet and it is a stain on the reputation of Prof. Mills’’.