Afoko And Agyepong Must Go Now!

I don't know what kind of "Mafia" Mr. Gregory Afoko and his elder brother, the besieged National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Paul Afoko, represents. But we now know, so far, for a fact that whatever Mafia organization these two siblings belong to is anything but the so-called Akyem Mafia, which party elements polarized around Alan Cash, the three-time failed presidential-candidacy aspirant of the New Patriotic Party, who is officially known as Mr. Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, have been criminally attempting to eviscerate.

We know for a fact that they are a criminal lot, because evidence presented by the Bolgatanga police indicates that, indeed, Mr. Gregory Afoko, an ex-convict who did time in prison, had set up his widely alleged vigilante group with the objective of providing "protective cover" to party executives widely known to be working around the clock to ensure that Nana Akufo-Addo is effectively and permanently retired after the 2016 general election, in order to pave the way for Mr. Kyerematen. This is what the "Cash Group" - or is it "The Cash Mafia"? - calls Agenda 2020 (See "Gregory Afoko Formed Vigilante Group To Protect Anti-Akufo-Addo Elements" MyJoyOnline.com / Modernghana.com 5/26/15).

And this is also where the plot thickens. In other words, "technically speaking," the Gregory Afoko Vigilante Group includes a sterling cast of prominent New Patriotic Party stalwarts like Messrs. Afoko, the NPP's National Chairman, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, the party's General-Secretary, Nana Ohene-Ntow, former NPP General-Secretary and Mr. Kyerematen's communications right-hand man. There may be others, such as Drs. McHypocrite, McNasty and McMole Nyaho-Tamakloe (my profuse apologies to Ms. Charity Baffoe who suggested the latter sobriquet in a recent email to this writer) and, of course, Drs. Kofi Konadu-Apraku and Richard W. Anane.

Already, a news report has appeared online urging former President John Agyekum-Kufuor to form a new political party. We shall, in due course, take up this aspect of the fast-unfolding events surrounding the brutal acid-dousing assassination of the late Mr. Adams Mahama who, until his indisputably crude Mafia-style execution on May 20, 2015, was the Upper-East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. At this juncture, however, it is not clear precisely why any group of apparently disgruntled party hacks would want Mr. Kufuor to form a new political party.

Is the unmistakable implication here, for instance, that Mr. Kufuor is smack behind Agenda 2020? Or better yet, did the former Rawlings Local Government Secretary have any hand in the death of Mr. Adams Mahama? And, also, what does this imply for the legacy of Mr. Agyekum-Kufuor? We shall take up some of these salient questions in detail in due course.

Already, the NPP's Council of Elders, headed by Mr. C. K. Tedam, has reportedly advised Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong to step aside even as the radar of police investigators zeroes in on the two lock-step political associates. Some are even calling Chairman Afoko and General-Secretary Agyepong ideo-identical twins. Whether the gruesome and criminal liquidation of Mr. Adams Mahama has anything to do with recent factional disturbances at the Bolgatanga headquarters of the New Patriotic Party is decidedly beside the point. What happened to Mr. Mahama was a repugnant act of criminality of the heighest order and must be envisaged and treated as such.