The People’s National Convention (PNC) is persuading its former flagbearer Hassan Ayariga to “discontinue with any intention” to form a political party.

An embittered Ayariga has broken ranks with the PNC to establish the All People’s Congress (APC) which is expected to be launched this week, having acquired a provisional license to operate.

The national chairman of the PNC Bernard Mornah said the decision, if true, will not help either side and has appealed to Ayariga to rescind his decision.

He said all efforts to reach Ayariga on phone to deliberate over the issue have proven futile.

“I do hope he’ll find time to respond to my calls so we can talk. I see PNC in him so for anything at all it runs in his blood. I have insisted that it is time for him to realise that when Dr Edward Mahama lost to him, he didn’t break away; he stayed,” the former General Secretary of the Nkrumahist party told Accra-based Joy FM.

He added: “We are a family and we should sit and resolve whatever it is. As far as I’m concerned there is no political party that is being formed and if there is any idea or thought of forming a political party then it is ill-advised. And it is time for us to work together.”

According to Mornah, “in the history of our Fourth Republic breaking away from a mother or current political party has not helped any of the individuals that has broken away. It is important therefore to advice Hassan Ayariga that if there is any intention of forming a political party, please discontinue with that intention.”

Breaking away
A Gynaecologist-cum-politician, Dr Mahama beat Ayariga to become the PNC presidential candidate at their national congress.

Mahama, who led the party in the 1996 elections through to the 2008 polls before being succeeded by Hassan Ayariga in the 2012 elections, polled 492 votes as against Ayariga’s 426 votes.

The defeat did not go down well with Ayariga who then broke ranks with the Nkrumahist grouping.