MILLS THREATENED TO QUIT NDC

Information reaching Daily Guide indicates that Prof John Evans Atta Mills, National Democratic Congress (NDC) aspiring presidential candidate, is on the verge of dumping the party under which he served as vice president.

At a meeting with NDC gurus after his defeat in the 2004 polls, Prof Mills had threatened to resign from the party for some unexplained reasons.

The law professor's decision not to take to the streets at the plodding of the NDC founder and other power-brokers attracted enormous pressure from within and was the immediate cause of the law professor's threat to resign from the party, Daily Guide learnt.

However, he was prevailed upon by the 'powerful' Fanti Confederacy whose members were present at the said meeting to hang on.

They pleaded with Mills not to leave the party, even if he was not going to take active interest in party affairs.

Daily Guide learnt that before the 2004 polls, the law professor was said to have informed his 'kitchen cabinet' including main financier and current front runner in the race for 2008, Eddie Annan, about his plans to quit active politics should he lose the elections.

With this at the back of the power brokers' mind, a shopping exercise for marketable candidates had commenced, compelling Eddie Annan, a business tycoon, to throw himself up for the 2008 race and expecting his close ally, John Atta Mills to throw his weight behind him.

Prof Mills was a regular visitor at Eddie Annan's house where he took courses in swimming.

In the heat of the pressure to hit the streets to protest against the 2004 polls results, a helpless Prof Mills had insisted that politics was not a matter of life and death.

His sudden 'about-turn' had actually stunned power brokers in the NDC, allowing some of them to play on his heart to force him out of the race.

For some, this was a man whose reliability could not be vouched for because of his inconsistency as a politician.

The cash-soaked Eddie Annan might for political reasons, decide to veneer the real status of his relationship with Prof Mills, but analysts believe that the man who had supported the law professor all along, was not happy about his decision to go again, especially after pledging to quit if he failed to clinch power in 2004.

Prof Mills had claimed that his relationship with Eddie Annan and other contestants like his former lackey, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, was still cordial.

However, Daily Guide has learnt that Mr Annan's swimming facility had been shut to the law professor, perhaps in protest of his refusal to step down for him.

That Prof Mills had jumped into the political fray as evidenced from his radio interview of a few days ago, even when doubts had been expressed about his health as contained in the text message sent to party founder, Jerry John Rawlings, was evidence of the pressure brought to bear upon him by the Fanti Confederacy.

The Fanti clique in the party would not let go their grip on the Professor, whom they maintained was too well-known to be replaced by another candidate.

Also, they hold the belief that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had lost ample ground and so with a little push, the law professor could lead them to Castle in 2009.

Things were not going the way of the Professor and his Fanti handlers as the pressure and machinations of the other contestants mounted.

The recent text message and the emanating developments pointed to a growing manouvre to have the law professor dumped.

When the party founder visited Cuba recently, he dropped a hint that he was still in support of his former vice president's candidature, as a means of preserving party unity.