I Didn’t Sign Afoko Petition – Karbo

Mr Anthony Karbo has said assertions by the governing National Democratic Congress’ parliamentary nominee for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, that he (Mr Karbo) was a signatory to the petition that eventually resulted in the suspension of the opposition NPP’s chairman Paul Afoko are false.

Mr Suhuyini, while addressing students of the Northern School of Business (NOBISCO), after donating relief items to victims of the school’s Gbewaa Boys’ dormitory that got destroyed by fire, stated that northerners were resentful of their own kith and kin, to the extent that they had failed to vote for President John Mahama in 2012 despite his northern roots, though Ewes had voted massively for their kinsman Jerry Rawlings when he stood for office, just as Ashantis turned out to vote in their numbers for President John Kufuor, while late President John Mills benefitted hugely from votes from his native Central Region to ascend the presidency in 2008.

To buttress his point, the former broadcaster said the NPP, which he described as being anti-northern, got willing northerners to sign a petition to oust its first northern chairman from his position.

“In the NPP, when they chose Paul Afoko to become their chairman, when they didn’t like Paul Afoko, they used northerners to sign petitions to take him out. It was our brothers, the Anthony Karbos, the C.K Tedams, who signed the petition and got Afoko out,” he added.

But reacting on Accra News Tuesday July 26, Mr Karbo strongly denied playing any part in Mr Afoko’s removal from office, saying: “I am making it known to all Ghanaians and NPP members that I never saw with my eyes [the petition], my name is not on the list of persons who put that petition together. So, ask Suhuyini where he got that information from… I have never been part of it and there is no way anybody can cite a petition [against Afoko] of which Anthony Karbo was a signatory.”

The Lawra parliamentary hopeful saw Mr Suhuyini’s comments as “very sad”, further stating he was “so embarrassed” with the former Alhaji and Alhaji host for making such false statement, which, he said, went against the cardinal virtue of truthfulness persons raised in the north of the country were associated with.

According to him, the people of northern Ghana were objective in their assessment of issues and, thus, would vote for a candidate based on his performance rather than his ethnicity. “He’s disgraced himself. He must come out to apologise for his comments, what he said was false,” Mr Karbo added.