The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) says it has uncovered what it terms as an ‘orchestrated attack’ planned on the party and its flag bearer, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.
A release issued at the week-end and signed by its Communications Director, Richmond Keelson, noted that the persons involved in this plot are elements of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“We could perhaps understand why NDC and NPP people would be concerned about strength the PPP and Dr. Nduom have gained. Those two parties, the so-called Goliaths of Ghana politics, would prefer to make the 2012 election a two-horse race so that one of them could win on the first ballot.”
Unfortunately, the statement indicated that the NDC and the NPP did not factor into their scheme the challenge PPP and Dr. Nduom would present.
“In effect, the PPP has thrown serious sand into their gari soakings. Indeed David PPP has arrived to challenge them for the crown.”
According to the PPP, it cannot understand why the Convention People’s Party (CPP) will be a part of this “Get Nduom by all means” attack.
“We are not even sure that the party [the CPP] still qualifies as a political party if one applies the requirements of the political parties law. A legitimate political party must be national in character, have offices verified by the EC in two-thirds of all districts in the country, have officers elected at the constituency, regional and national levels and submit their financial return.
The CPP, the statement argues, cannot meet these requirements ‘today.’
“We know. And they know it too. So when some CPP people as we have learned have gone to gather young people whose employment was terminated by one of Dr. Nduom’s many companies one to three years ago, for legitimate reasons, to hold a press conference to throw mud at Dr. Nduom, it can only be an act of desperation. The drowning CPP cannot take the PPP down with them. As for Dr. Nduom, they are only wasting their bullets on him,” it advised.
It further explained that elements within the NDC and the NPP have contracted various people to attack the flag bearer of the PPP for the reason that “Dr. Nduom and the PPP have thrown an important challenge to the aspiring Presidential Candidates for the 2012 election.”
Read below the rest of the PPP statement
The PPP has asked our leaders – politicians, businessmen and women, lawyers, MPs, Ministers of State, senior journalists and others to make a personal commitment to the principle of incorruptible leadership in a very practical sense.
“Specifically, the PPP has thrown a challenge to all Presidential Candidates to make a firm commitment to the principle of incorruptible leadership. Incorruptible leadership is practical leadership that cannot be perverted, bribed, or corrupted. It is honest and just.”
We predicted that all manner of people, particularly propagandists and beneficiaries of state-sponsored corruption would take us on. They have started and plan to move it into high gear. When Kwabena Agyapong, John Boadu and others tell deliberate lies about the good work done by Dr. Nduom in the NPP administration we know the game they are playing. They are worried about the competence factor. When a certain Tony Aidoo who has admitted that he has not been able to perform 75% of the monitoring and evaluation work assigned to him questions Dr. Nduom’s integrity, we know he is only trying to mask his own incompetence. When hired and paid journalists shout and scream threats at Dr. Nduom on radio, we know they are working for their stomachs. But we will not be deterred. Indeed, we welcome the insults, the abuse from those who want the nation to remain in the rot, the corruption so that their selfish interests can be met. Ghanaians are happy about the PPP and Dr. Nduom’s corruption crusade. We will not be part of blame game of who has done what and who is worse than the other. We are humans and as such we may have made mistakes. But we are not afraid to commit ourselves to a higher principle and the truth about what is killing our people.
We wish to repeat what is making our opponents nervous:
Our Presidential Candidate, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom has demonstrated his commitment to the principle of incorruptible leadership by making the following promises:
1. He will ask the Internal Revenue Service to provide me with certified true copies of his income tax returns so that he can release them to the public soon as he files nominations papers to officially become a candidate for the 2012 presidential election.
2. He will ask the Auditor-General to provide me with certified true copies of the assets report that he filed as a Minister of State and Member of Parliament and release them to the public as soon as he files nomination papers to officially become a candidate for the 2012 presidential election.
3. The PPP National Treasurer will release to the public our financial report that includes the sources of funding for our national campaign and certify our compliance with the Political Parties Law as soon as he files nominations papers to officially become a candidate for the 2012 election.
We simply cannot trust and should never vote for any political party in Ghana that does not disclose the sources of its funding. We all need to know if people, foreign or local will be looking for inflated contracts or judgment debts to pay back the funds they used to finance a political campaign.
So the challenge is on. Some propagandists and apologists of presidential aspirants are all over the airwaves claiming that this is what is done already and it is the law. If so, let the presidential aspirants come and disclose and make the relevant documents public so the people can be the judges of their actions. It is not enough for people to sit at radio, television studios and at home to claim that they are not corrupt or there is nothing new in what the PPP is asking our presidential aspirants to do. We are not accusing anyone of being corrupt. All we are saying is, let those who want to lead do so from the front and show a personal commitment that can be emulated by the rest.
Richmond Keelson
PPP Director of Communications
Pix: Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, PPP flag bearer