Akufo Addo  Can’t Speak Against Violence  – NPP Man

Contrary to expectations of Ghanaians that President Akufo-Addo will condemn rampaging youth of New Patriotic Party visiting mayhem on innocent citizens after winning power, The aL-hAJJ can state on authority that the president will not speak against the roundly condemned acts.

President Akufo-Addo, this paper has uncovered, personifies the very atrocious acts his party members have embarked on since the NPP won power and therefore lacks the moral authority to call them to order.

Party insiders have confided in this paper that NPP hooligans terrorizing innocent Ghanaians in the name of protecting state properties are emboldened by the president’s countless beating of war drums and his belligerent posturing.

“I am surprise people want the president to condemn our supporters. What do these people want the president to condemn? Our supporters are doing what the president believes in and stand for. He is not going to condemn anybody,” a senior member of the NPP told The aL-hAJJ on condition of anonymity.

President Akufo-Addo, as opposition leader, on numerous occasions implored members of the NPP to be combat-ready to match their political opponents boot-for-boot and, not to recoil into their shells when “one or two of them are overawed”.

The President in one of his riotous moods in his days in opposition, threatened that “very soon the militants on our side would rise…” Such comments, some say, feed into the ongoing brazen attacks of supposed NDC members and seizing of public properties by NPP members.

Critics say President Akufo-Addo’s past record in encouraging party supporters to engage in violence and all forms of lawlessness; his deafening silence in the midst of condemnation by well-meaning Ghanaians, are testaments of the fact that the rampaging youth are doing his bidding.

Some youth believed to belong to the NPP, after the swearing-in of President Akufo Addo on January 7 this year, besieged government offices to take over their management, while others, destroyed some government properties claiming their party is now in power, and they have the right to take over state agencies. Others have also resorted to attacking persons suspected to be their political opponents mainly from the opposition NDC.

Many Ghanaians including Chairman of the Peace Council, Right Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante; political science lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Eric Opoku Mensah; executives of the NDC and other respected Ghanaians have condemned the act and have called on the president to call his supporters to order.

“I expect that his voice and his command will be the final voice,” otherwise, “the president could be blamed” should things get out of hand, and, therefore, “he needs to come out and speak”, Dr Opoku Mensah noted.

However, while the president has remained tightlipped on the dastardly act, leading members of the NPP have been justifying it and have even threatened to continue with it.

The NPP National Chairman, Mr Freddy Blay and a deputy General Secretary of the party, Nana Obiri Boahen have both justified the despicable acts.

While accusing the NDC of being hypocritical in condemning the act, they (Freddy Blay and Nana Obiri Boahen) said supporters of the NPP are only engaged in their civic duty of protecting state property.

“In some cases, particularly places like the harbor, DVLA, Peduase Lodge, polling stations [sic] and so forth, in some cases the people had to go there to protect state property to ensure that looting stops. I’ve been told that in some public offices and so forth, all of a sudden those who were working there have refused to come to work, not because they are being intimidated or being chased out, but they themselves have suspected that because of how they came there, or purely based on they being members of the party then in power, some people will chase them out and they’ve left those public places to the wind, to the weather and people have gone there to protect it. It’s not a question of condemnation, I’ve told you that in some instances I won’t condemn if they were there to protect property,” Mr Freddy Blay noted.

A member of NPP Communications team, Hopeson Adorye, has also said he will mobilize members of his party to continue to take-over all public toilets in the country even after respective Ghanaians have called on the President and the NPP to call their supporters to order.

In a related development, Chief Executive Officer of M Y Caesar Company, Dr M Y Caesar, has appealed to President Akufo-Addo to break away from the ‘politics of equalization’ and ensure holistic development.

He emphasized that the good performance by President Akufo-Addo at the general election was enough endorsement for his administration to embrace all Ghanaians irrespective of their political affiliations.

Dr Caesar, therefore, urged that a line should be drawn as a nation, regarding political equalization, adding that Ghana had grown as a nation to refuse to allow anybody to justify wrong doing on the basis of equalization.

Dr Caesar, who said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Kumasi, says most often in Ghanaian politics; the leadership had found it convenient to compare their ills to that of their predecessor in an attempt to portray theirs as the less corrupt and more desirable.

He has, therefore, called on all Ghanaians to refrain from justifying wrongdoings.

According to the CEO, public officials hold office for all Ghanaians and not their political party supporters, activists and foot soldiers which make its reprehensible when such offices are run to please a section of the population.

He appealed to President Akufo-Addo to have the courage to make bold decisions that would lead the nation into prosperity.

Dr Caesar urged the new government to appreciate the supremacy of the Constitution as the basic law of the nation. (With additional files from Graphiconline.com)