Tommy Amematekpor Speaks At Last

At long last, Mr. Thomas K. Amematekpor, a presidential advisor, has after years of endured vilification, broken his golden silence and 'coughed' out what he thinks and knows to be the truth about the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Volta Region.

At first, he was hesitant, and would not like to talk on the matter when The Chronicle came face-to-face with him during one of his brief visits to Ho recently.

"As adviser to the president, my duty is to, first and foremost, unite the party, and would be happy if we could please limit our interview to the historical aspect alone," he demanded.

But a single Akan proverb did the trick. It says Se woanka biaa, ye bu wu fo; to wit blame is usually apportioned to anyone who continually refuses to narrate his side of a story in which he supposedly played a role."

He had no option than to set the records straight, once and for all, especially with reference to a recent letter written by a Francisco Asameni, referring to him as a planter of his favourites on the party in the region.

Starting from the formation of the Volta Resource Group (VRG), a strong social force that played significant roles in the party in the wake of the fourth republic, the evidently press-shy Tommy said in the early days of the NPP Mr. J. B. Da Rocha, a founder, invited him and some 19 others, who hailed from the region, to his office at Osu, and encouraged them to form a regional bloc of the Danquah-Busia ideology.

"We were about 20 people, including Cephas Donkor, Nick Akpebu, and Amesimeku on that day. He sold the idea to us and we embraced it," he revealed.

According to 'Efo Tommy', upon their return to the region they held a maiden meeting in the office of Lawyer Tamakloe; with the original members of VRG as himself, Amesimeku, Patrick Agbenoworsi, Ray Kakraba Quarshie, Lawyer Okudzeto, Mr. Bansah, James Dogbe and Mr. Osei.

He added that later when the group grew in membership, some people clearly started demonstrating that they were being used for some 'special' agenda.

"Gifty Aryee, Warrentatu and Esther Ofori (among others), who joined later, wanted to hijack the group en bloc to the Nana Akuffo Addo camp during the national delegates congress. But we the original members did not think it was right to carry the group to one camp, so we pulled out of that game," he said.

On the accusation that he was 'a hanger on' in the party, he further revealed that he had single-handedly rented, furnished and paid staff salaries since 1992, when he was running his Tairus Hotel, and challenged those who claimed they spent money on the party in the region, to state the kind of business they were engaged in at the time.

Asked whether the old Kufuor/Addo tags are not dividing the party in the region today, the presidential advisor replied, "No. Those days are over now. Today the party is solidly on the ground. And I promise you that, with the creation the new constituencies, we are targeting nine of them in the region in this year's election. All we need is unity."

Amematekpor also said it was not true that he was championing the cause of Cephas Donkor as claimed by what he called 'the faceless writer', and advised the aspirants to visit their constituencies and campaign, instead of staying in Accra to complain.

It would be recalled that some days after The Chronicle did two stories on the political temperature in the North Dayi constituency, one Francisco Asameni, of no specified abode, wrote a screaming, self-inflicting rejoinder, when he roped in personalities who have nothing to do with North Dayi, into the fray.

Calling The Chronicle story a hack job, Asameni roped in Kwasi Owusu Yeboah, the Volta Regional Minister, Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Kenwood Nuworsu, the regional NPP chairman; accusing the last two of muzzling every independent voice in the region in order to have full control over the regional party for their designs.

In the first story, this reporter, after visiting the constituency, following the disqualification of Professor Bluwey two weeks earlier talked to Esther Ofori and quoted her reaction ad verbatim. The paper only put across the expressions of the people, and the reactions of the parties concerned.

In the second story the reporter travelled once more to Kpando and interacted with nearly half of the 72 delegates present at the Bishop Herman College assembly hall, before coming out with the story.

Today the paper is proud to be the first media house to make 'Torgbui Tekpor of Agbozume' talk in an official interview, and hopes this too will not be seen, through political lens, as a hack job.