Mills Cited For Kufuor's Woes

Ex-President John Kufuor

PRESIDENT JOHN Atta Mills and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been accused of masterminding a grand scheme to demonize and destroy the reputation of ex-President John Kufuor in order to create public disaffection for him.

A group calling itself the Ga-Dangme Forward Movement (GFM) made the allegation at a news conference on Thursday and accused President Mills and the NDC of instigating another group known as the Ga-Dangme Youth to humiliate the ex-President under the pretext of defending Ga lands.

“Mills and the NDC have constantly accused Kufuor and the NPP of stealing Ga lands and that the NDC would return all such lands when it comes to power; they used that to create an unnecessary ethnic-hatred for the NPP and that is what has led to all this….As if to add salt to injury, the President is secretly endorsing the lawless actions of this group,” Nii Titus-Glover, a leading member of the group noted at the conference yesterday.

In recent weeks, the Ga-Dangme Youth have continuously expressed foul-worded misgivings about the use of a state bungalow at Ridge in Accra by the ex-President as his office.

The group has ordered Mr. Kufuor to quit the said office or explain to them the circumstance and capacity under which he started to use the office.

Interestingly, comments from Spokespersons of President Mills have given credence to claims from the Ga-Dangme Youth that Mr. Kufuor has questions to answer as to how he came by the said office.

According the GFM, the statements from the President's Spokespersons are worrisome and the actions of the Ga-Dangme youth smacks of ethnicity and should be discouraged. They said even if the Ga-Dangme Youth wants to defend Ga lands, it should be done according to due procedure and that it should also be devoid of political bias and an open disregard for the elders of the Ga State.

It noted that the Office of the President ought to publicly discourage any group of persons from taking the law into their hands to the extent of ordering an ex-President to move out of a State bungalow which the Constitution allows him to use as his office.

Ben Sam-Sowah and Kwartie Titus-Glover, speaking on behalf of the GFM, explained that the Ga-Dangme Youth does not have the mandate to speak on behalf of all Ga-Dangme youth because the group is not a wing of the Ga State and has not been given the mandate to represent the entire Ga youth.

“Is it not rather surprising that all the leaders and spokespersons of the so-called Ga-Dangme Youth are known activists of the NDC except for one of them who is from the DFP?…Their actions are purely political and cannot be sanctioned by the entire Ga-Dangme Chiefs and people.

“We can say with all authority that the  Ga State has not conducted any congress to elect these political deviants as our mouthpieces…We are respectfully calling on Nii Ga and his elders to call these young men to order because their action is a disgrace to the entire Ga State,” they added.

The GFM explained that Mr. Kufuor did not illegally move into the said office and that he is not the only non-Ga using a State bungalow at Ridge or in other parts of Accra as their offices.

The Ga-Dangme Forward Movement denied that it is an extension of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), but admitted that some of its members belong to the party.

Also in attendance are the NPP Constituency Chairman for Dadekotopon; Gladys Dede Mann; former MP for Odododio, Niibi Ayibonte; and Boye Laryea, a Regional Executive member of the NPP.

By Halifax Ansah-Addo