Two former ministers under the John Mahama-led government have been cited as being a part of the reasons the National Democratic Congress lost the December 2016 general elections, a member of the Dr Kwesi Botchwey Committee has revealed.

According to Dr. Ibrahim Zuberu, it was established that the actions of former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper and former Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah contributed to the defeat of the NDC in the election.

Giving highlights of aspects of the Kwesi Botchwey report to Onua FM Tuesday, Dr Zuberu said it emerged during their postmortem meetings at the grassroots level that the two refused to give out vital information to party communicators to counter the claims of the New Patriotic Party.

“The problem was, people were keeping information to their chest instead of releasing those information for us to use. Asempa, I’ll tell you a personal experience I had with Seth Terkper,” Dr Zuberu Bright Kwesi Asempa .

“Concerning issues of the economy, when you go to him [Terkper] for information, he won’t give it to you. He prefers to go and do it himself.

This was said in every constituency we visited, his name was mentioned throughout, especially [on] the issue with both Teacher Trainees and Nursing Trainees allowance.”

He added: “Even things that we did not want to say boldly, these supporters said it openly, so yes Seth Terkper has been blamed greatly” Dr Zuberu claimed Dr Mahamadu Bawumia in the campaign period made a lot of false claims on the economy, but NDC communicators failed to effectively counter them because they lacked the right information to do that.

When asked whether it was because the former Finance Minister thought that the communicators lacked the experience and depth of knowledge to explain economic issues, Dr Zuberu said “What is it that Seth Terkper can say that somebody who understands economy cannot say or what is it that Monah Quartey can say that another person in the NDC who understands economy cannot say, please don’t go there”.

In the case of former Communication Minister Dr. Omane Boamah, Dr. Ibrahim Zuberu explained that “for instance, Omane Boamah would say a lot of important things on Radio Gold, but he would never share those information with anyone.

You can ask some of the panel who appear on the Radio Gold show”. He claimed everywhere the committee went across the country in gathering information on the causes of the party’s defeat, the names of the two former ministers, particularly that of Seth Terkper came up.

The NDC’s poor showing at the elections led to the party losing power to the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP.

Some aggrieved supporters and members of the party accused and attacked some of the leadership and executives the party as being behind the defeat, something that triggered the formation of the Kwesi Botchwey Committee to look into.

The Committee was also tasked to come up with recommendations on the way forward for the party. On Monday a report of the Committee was submitted to the executives but did not disclose details contained in the report except some eight recommendations.