General News of Monday, 7 January 2013

Source: radioxyzonline.com

NPP is not sabotaging President Mahama - Oware

Not all Ghanaians were at the inauguration of President. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) all boycotted the ceremony.

Defending the decision of the NPP to boycott ceremony, the Vice Chairman of the NPP, Fred Oware, stressed that the actions of the NPP were not to sabotage the president but to seek justice and fairness in the just ended election.

He made the comments on Metro TVs Good Morning Ghana programme on Monday.

He said “in this matter, the final arbiter is the Supreme Court. It’s not the Electoral Commission… So let us pat everyone at the back and let us say that listen under the leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo, in spite of the difficulties we are having, we’ve decided that we will go by the legal means.”

He said the party is not going to support anyone who decides to be riotous over the matter but that they will ensure supporters abide by the rule of law.

But his co-panelist, Nana Ato Dadzie, a former Chief of Staff, disagreed with Mr. Oware. He said the NPP could have attended the ceremony and pursued its case in court.

He insisted that the NPP is not doing Ghanaians a favour by allowing the inauguration ceremony of the president to take place.

“This is a constitutional obligation. All of us as a people have gone to a referendum; we’ve agreed on the framework within which this country must be run,” he said.

He said the constitution stipulates that once someone has been elected and declared winner of the Presidential polls by the EC, that is a prima facie evidence proving that the person has been legally elected.

Nana Ato Dadzie said the NPP is bound by law to respect the declaration of President Mahama as the duly elected president and that their case is much ado about nothing.