... Party officials charge at NPP

- Botwe, Commey, Akomeah on the carpet The running spate of accusations and counter-accusations, coupled with the trading of verbal assaults among officials of the two largest political parties, namely the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), just months ahead of the December general elections, is just refusing to go away.

Officials of the Ashanti regional branch of the NDC have warned that the party was prepared to match the ruling party word for word if the officials of the NPP continued with what they say was the persistent verbal assault on top officials of the NDC, especially its flag bearer, Prof. John Evans Attah Mills.

The NDC top men in this region have accused their counterparts in the NPP of trying to pollute the current serene political atmosphere being enjoyed in the country through the use of insulting and offending language against top officials of the NDC so that the attention of Ghanaians would be diverted from key political issues in the country, which are likely to spell the political doom of the NPP.

Leading a number of NDC officials to voice out the complaints of the party, the acting deputy regional secretary of the party, Mr. Doe Tamakloe, pointed out that Ghanaians were being made to believe that officials of the NDC always had nothing reasonable to say when it came to the current political dispensation in the country.

He warned that the language being used by some core members of the ruling party in relation to politics posed a great threat to the peace that the country was presently enjoying, stressing that it was even more dangerous as the country was preparing to hold the fourth general elections of the fourth republic.

Mr. Tamakloe named specifically, Messrs. Dan Botwe, Lord Commey and Nana Akomea, general secretary, national organizer and Minister of Information respectively as being the worst perpetrators of the use of foul language against their political opponents in their day to day comments on political issues.

The NDC deputy regional scribe made reference to a recent comment made by Mr. Botwe in reaction to the Republic Day press conference by Prof. Mills, describing Mr. Botwe's comments as lacking decorum and decency and as being a deliberate attempt to impugn the personality of the learned professor.

“In fact, if they want us to go that far by attacking the personalities of officials in each other's party, we are more than prepared to do that, but we only feel that that would not be in the interest of the nation. It is just very unfortunate that our colleagues in the NPP have not realized that the verbal war won't help this nation and are continuously attacking us,” Tamakloe strongly stated.

He continued that, “ We least expected a person like Dan Botwe to have the courage to refer to the comments and observations of Prof. Mills as being childish. At least he should know that the Professor is not his colleague.”

The NDC's regional official, who was surrounded by other party faithful at the premises of the regional secretariat of the party, advised that as much as possible, issues of political relevance should be the prime concern of all politicians rather than a resort to verbal assault on the personalities of political opponents any time they mounted political platforms.

Mr. Tamakloe, whose comments were frequently interjected by his colleagues, in their bid to give the complaints a greater force, expressed the worry that gradually the nation's citizens were being polarized on political lines, adding that if a stop was not put to the current development the future of the country was not going to be what the good people of Ghana expected.

When he was reminded that the NDC could also help in finding a solution to the problem by desisting from also using insulting language on officials of the NPP, he noted that the problem of verbal attacks had always originated from the camp of the ruling party.

“If the officials of the NPP stop calling us names and referring to us as murderers, among others, we are prepared to ensure that we maintain political civility in all our political endeavors,” he assured.

In recent times officials of both the NDC and the NPP have made uncomplimentary remarks against each other's officials which often touched on the personalities of the persons involved.