Spio denies sneering at Mills

Dr Ekow Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, one of the candidates who contested for the National Democratic Congress' flagbearer position has denied pouring scorn on Professor Evans Attah-Mills.

The Daily Guide newspaper reported on Thursday that Spio-Garbrah took a swipe at Professor Mill's campaign approach for the 2008 elections during a closed-door meeting of executives of the National Democratic Congress at the Coco Beach at Nungua in Accra.

He is said to have condemned Prof Mills for not resourcing the NDC party enough for the coming elections.

Dr Garbrah told Joy News that he never made any such comment and that a careful reading of the Daily Guide account of what might have happened at the said meeting was the author's own views.

He said at any rate, the election campaign is months away for anyone to conclude that not enough has already been done, and if anyone passed the comment, it certainly was not coming from him.

“That statement is absolutely false and totally untrue… it is very early yet for each of us to know what position to play in the team so how could I also then be accusing anybody of not having done enough. This is just March, April 2007 and the election is 2008, December so if anybody was going to resource the party I wouldn't expect those resources to have appeared in February and March.”

The paper also quotes him as saying that the NDC needs about 20 million dollars to prosecute the elections but he again denied putting any figure down, explaining that the party indeed would need a lot of money but would not say how much.

Different newspapers have given separate interpretations to issues said to have been discussed at the meeting. Reports in the Accra Daily Mail and the Crusading Guide Newspapers suggested party founder Jerry Rawlings called for a coup to take power from the ruling government.