NDC Against Purchase Of New Presidential Jet

THE National Democratic Congress (NDC), would vehemently resist the purchase of a new Presidential Jet for President Kufuor if the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government attempts to purchase one.

Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, National General Secretary of the NDC said this when he addressed constituency executives of the NDC drawn from the southern sector of the Western Region at Essikado near Sekondi, on Thursday.

The meeting was meant to introduce the new National Executive members to the constituency executive members and to brief them on the Representative of People's Amendment Bill (ROPAB) as well as measures being adopted by the new national officers to re-organize the party.

He said the government has no justification to purchase a new President Jet so long as there is one sitting idle which could be used by the President.

Mr Nketia said Ghanaians could no longer afford to see the country's scarce resources being thrown away, saying that already the President had gone for 30 million dollars loan to rehabilitate the Peduase Presidential Palace whilst the money could have been used to provide some social needs for Ghanaians.

He told the local executive officers that the Electoral Commission has not legally declared President Kufuor as the winner of the 2004 Presidential Election.

"President Kufuor is only operating on provisional results," Mr Nketia stated.

He said an Accra High Court had ordered the Electoral Commission to compile the 2004 presidential election results and to declare the winner legally.

"The NDC has what they do not have and what they have we are capable of having it," he remarked.

On the ROPAB, Mr Nketia explained that the rights and privileges enshrined in the country's constitution could be enjoyed by every Ghanaian only within Ghana and not outside Ghana.

This was because the laws of Ghana could not be applied in other countries. He therefore asked Ghanaians living abroad and who wish to vote in Ghana to come down and register.

He said the NDC's fight against ROPAB would go on unabated if the Bill was not withdrawn because, "it is better to fight now than to stop a bigger fight."

Mr Ofosu Ampofo, NDC National Organizer lamented the total silence of the Ghana Bar Association on an important national issue like the ROPAB.

Mr Ampofo said "we shall fight against anything that might bring about misunderstanding, disturbance and chaos in the country in future and therefore if President Kufuor's government is a listening government, it must spare Ghanaians any unforeseen disturbances.

Dr Kwabena Adjei, National Chairman of NDC announced that if the ROPAB was not withdrawn, the demonstration would continue.