The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has described as false, claims by the general secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Aseidu Nketiah that the NPP charged GHC500,000 as filing fees in 2014.

Asiedu Nketiah in an attempt to defend the party’s decision to charge GHC 400,000 as filing fees for aspirants seeking to contest the party’s flagbearer race, said “If you compare these monies against the cost of organizing the activities we are talking about, you will realize that the party will still have to raise money to supplement whatever will be accruing from these filing fees so I do not see how anybody can say that it is outrageous. NPP three years ago was charging 500,000. We were all with you here in this country, did you complain?

But in a statement signed by Deputy National Communications Director of the NPP, Richard Asante, they described the claims as “deliberate lies and propaganda approach of the NDC whenever they want to cover up an unacceptable deed”.

SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT

The statement by the NDC’s General Secretary, Aseidu Nketia, that the NPP charged ¢500,000 from flagbearer aspirants some four years ago is untrue and typical of the deliberate lies and propaganda approach of the NDC whenever they want to cover up an unacceptable deed.

GHC420,000 thousand for filing fees is unacceptable and can only mean a blatant attempt to skew the primary in favour of a particular person.



Never in the history of the NPP has anything close to that amount been charged for primaries or any of our internal elections.
It should be noted that on June 6th, 2014, towards the preparations for the last presidential primaries, the Nomination Fee, approved by the National Council, was Ten Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS10,000.00) and the Filing Fee is Seventy-Five Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS75,000.00).

A statement to that effect, signed by the then General Secretary, is available anywhere as a public document.

We challenge the NDC’s General Secretary to prove this allegation or retract and apologise to the NPP and Ghanaians for attempting to justify and rationalize what is obviously an obnoxious way of monetizing internal contest and eliminating other contestants.
Asiedu Nketia should also concentrate on how to rebuild his party to become the respectable opposition our democracy craves for.

This hefty GHC420,000 demonstrates the need to be vigilant about the previous administration’s financial activities and its impact on the national treasury.

…Signed…
RICHARD ASANTE
(DEPUTY NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR)