Politics of Thursday, 11 April 2019

Source: kasapafmonline.com

Punish NDC if they boycott vigilante talks – NPP to Ghanaians

Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah

The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, has urged Ghanaians to punish the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) if they walk out of the ongoing talks to disband political vigilantism in the country.

Such punishment, he said, should be through electoral rejection for the NDC to know that they cannot take Ghanaians for granted.

“I want the people of Ghana to punish any political party that pretends to be committed to this talk and who in truth are not committed. Any political party who opts out of this talk should be punished by electoral rejection. Any political party who pretends and tries to bring macho men and violence into the next elections should be punished by rejection. The people of Ghana have rejected violence in elections; the people of Ghana don’t want secret preparations towards elections with violence; the people of Ghana have told us that we have elected you to serve us – the programs the NPP is running does not need violence”, he said.

He added that, “Reducing import duties does not need violence; free SHS does not need violence; paying allowances does not need violence; paying road arrears does not need violence; constructing roads in Adentan does not need violence. The NPP does not benefit from violence – we don’t like violence. Asiedu Nketiah and his men who want to derail this talk please we are telling the people of Ghana to reject you”.

Mr. Asamoah who is also the NPP MP for Adentan made this observation when interacting with journalists on the sidelines of Parliamentary sitting, Wednesday.

He was responding to comments made by the General Secretary of the opposition NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, over the first meeting between the NPP and NDC over talks to disband their various political vigilante groups.

The said meeting was held in Accra, Tuesday, April 9, 2019, and moderated by the National Peace Council.



Mr. Nketiah is reported to have been on several radio stations discussing what transpired at the said meeting, an action the NPP Director of Communications considers was in bad fate.

According to him, both parties agreed to communicate through one medium; a communique and was therefore surprised to hear the Chief Scribe of the NDC go round several radio stations in an attempt to discuss in details whatever transpired at Tuesday’s meeting.

“He is acting in bad fate. From day one when the invitation was thrown, they’ve sought to throw spanners in the works to the point where in this peaceful country where we are not fighting, they wanted to bring UN Peacekeepers, ECOWAS and all that in here. Yesterday they were talking about bringing in land guards and Fulani herdsmen to come and discuss this matter. It is not right; it is bad fate and every turn of the way, the NDC, I don’t know whether it is the entire leadership but clearly speaking through Asiedu Nketiah and led by Asiedu Nketiah on this particular matter, I’ve tried to avoid coming to grips with the real problem”.

“And the problem requires that we sit and talk. We’ve had the first meeting and we’ve come to very serious conclusions. Two parties saying that we will not accept this any longer. Therefore, we will disband. We will prohibit such activities and we will cooperate with the Police and other stakeholders to ensure … and then we have agreed to meet again on April 29, 2019. How do you go round saying that this person said this, that person said that and this one doesn’t want to do this and this one doesn’t want to do that? Why can’t you wait till the 29 of April? Why can’t you write to the Chairman of the Peace Council stating your reservations because it is peace talks? Well, we are not at war”, he noted.