General News of Friday, 28 March 2003

Source: Chronicle

Obed Clears NPP; Govt Clears NPP

The National Chairman of the NDC, Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah, has said that the real problem facing his party is the lack of funds.

He said, the NDC?s continuous failure in by-elections could not be attributed to the perceived feud between him and the ex-President Rawlings.

He argued that if we do not have funds to run the party we would still have problems and believes that this is one of the main problems of the party. Consequently, people should do a deeper analysis and stop using their individual differences as the reasons for their problems.

The NDC chairman was reacting to allegations put to him by ?Chronicle? that the wranglings between him and Rawlings were ruining the party.

On the question of the Hon. MP for Amefi West, Mr. Kofi Asante, resignation, Dr. Asamoah said he did not have the suspicion that the NPP had a hand in it.

Rather, he blamed some members of the party who manhandled Kofi Asante at the NDC national delegates congress, held at Legon, Accra, in December last year.

GOVT REACTS? WE HAVEN?T POACHED KOFI ASANTE

The government has denied the allegation by the NDC that it influenced the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Amenfi West, Mr. Kofi Asante, to resign as MP by offering him a lucrative job.

It also described as falsehood, the assertion by the NDC that at the time his resignation was announced, Mr. Asante was in Abuja as a member of a government delegation to Nigeria.

These were contained in a statement issued by the Information Ministry in Accra.

It was in reaction to the claim by Mr. Rojo Mettle-Nunoo of the NDC that the Asante?s resignation formed part of a grand design by the government to offer members of the NDC lucrative jobs in order to poach them.