We won’t give you a pesewa … Former ministers rebel against NDC leadership

A meeting called by the National Executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to discuss the way forward for the opposition party on Monday, this week, became an avenue for temper tantrums when the agenda for the meeting was made known to the participants.

According to The Chronicle sources at the meeting, the outburst of the members started when the conveners told the participants, who were mainly former ministers and deputy ministers in the immediate past NDC administration, that they must contribute a percentage of their ex-gratia to the party to ensure its smooth running.

The Chronicle gathered that immediately the leaders finished making the demand known to the former ministers and their deputies, the room momentarily went dead until a former lady minister from Accra mustered courage, and told the national executives of the party that until they render accounts for the millions of dollars given to them (leaders) in the form of donations by businessmen during the electioneering campaign, they would never contribute a pesewa towards the running of the party.

What even riled the former ministers most, The Chronicle was told, was when one of the leaders from the Western part of the country told them that the 2016 election was the first time a campaign for national elections was ran from the presidency, instead of the national headquarters of the party.

The said national executive further told the charged meeting that he knew three months to the elections that the NDC was going to lose.

One of the former ministers later told The Chronicle that the said national executive knew the NDC was going to lose the elections, as he told the meeting, yet he went in for motorbikes and claimed he was going to distribute them to soften 'hard grounds.'

Some of the former ministers would also not accept claims that the campaign for the just-ended elections was ran from the presidency, when most of the national executives were part of the campaign team.

A deep throat source told this reporter that one of the national executives was shuttling between the presidency and the party headquarters to collect huge sums of money to prosecute the campaign, but the said money rather ended in individual pockets.

A lady was also said to have collected huge sums of money to campaign along the coast, but a major part of the money went into her private pocket, which is evidenced in how the party lost terribly along the coast.

Some of the party followers who spoke to The Chronicle also alleged that some of the executives are harboring campaign pick-ups and had refused to surrender them to the party, now that it has lost power.

Some of the executives, according to sources, claim most of the cars have broken down and, therefore, no more roadworthy.

Ever since the NDC lost the presidential and parliamentary elections, the foot soldiers have leveled a multitude of allegations against the party leaders.

The Western Regional Deputy Women's Organiser of the party, Madam Araba Tagoe, for instance, threatened to expose all those who misappropriated campaign funds, instead of using them to garner votes for the party.

The firebrand party lady is, however, yet to honour her pledge to expose looters of the campaign funds.

Keep reading The Chronicle for more 'apo'.
 

By Emmanuel Akli