Dennis Kwakwa, Ashanti Regional NPP Communication Director
The Ashanti Regional Communication Director of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dennis
Kwakwa, has claimed that, over the past few days, some leading figures within the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been caught in tribally discriminative attitude towards their own NDC supporters who are perceived to be of Ashanti descent.
He has therefore urged all NDC supporters in the region who feel aggrieved by the agenda to defect and come home to the NPP where everybody is considered Ghanaian deserving of available opportunities.
He cited a journalist of an Accra-based radio station, Kwabena Bobie Ansah, as saying that the NDC was discriminating in its political relations and engagement with residents of Ashanti Region.
According to the alarm sounded by the journalist on his Facebook wall, the NDC is discriminating against Ashantis in its ongoing membership registration exercise in several parts of the region.
Alarming
Addressing a press conference in Kumasi yesterday, Mr Kwakwa claimed persons bearing Ashanti names are being denied the opportunity to register their membership, whilst others are subjected to serious frustrations in their attempts to register for a party membership card.
“Similarly, another popular figure and close confidant of former President John Dramani Mahama, Mr Frank Kwaku Appiah, popularly known as Appiah Stadium, on Asempa Radio few weeks ago, also had cause to complain that one of the aspirants for the Ashanti Regional Communications Officer position, Mr. Asafo Agyei, is being discriminated against on the basis that he is Ashanti,” he said.
The NPP Regional Communications Director, however, intimated that the NPP is not surprised about these developments because the NDC has a history of using anti-Akan propaganda to achieve its sinister political objectives, though it is always the first to blame the ruling NPP for the uncivilized attitude.
“Thankfully, our brothers and sisters who suffer this fate in the NDC have a good opportunity to come back to the NPP where they are seen to originate from. The NPP as a party does not discriminate against anyone based on their tribal, ethnic, or religious affiliation,” he stressed.
Media bribery allegations
He also acknowledged that the NPP holds the media in high esteem, as evidenced in the number of reforms, laws and policies its administrations had put in place over the years to strengthen the media.
Mr Kwakwa further emphasised that the NPP considers any attempt to subvert the work of any media personnel or institutions as reprehensible, assuring that “it will do everything within its powers to protect and safeguard the interest of journalists in the country”.
In that regards, he expressed worry about the recent allegations involving one journalist with the
Multimedia group in Kumasi, Nana Kwadwo Jantuah, who is alleged to have been paid a sum of $2000 by the NDC to supposedly influence him against the current government.
In his view, the recent allegation may confirm the party’s long held opinion that the journalist in question had always been prejudiced against the NPP.
“It is on record that many NPP communicators have had confrontational issues with the journalist over his biased posture in moderating political programmes. Notable among those who had had occasion to confront Jantuah are Mr. Alex Opoku Mensah, the Regional Director of the National Service Scheme and Mr Raphael Sarfo Patrick, the Regional Youth Organiser of the NPP,” he recounted.
He said to lend credence to the NPP’s suspicion, Nana Kwadwo Jantuah, a day after his alleged act
became public, sat on radio and warned the NPP to be on guard because “he was about to switch to third and fourth gear.”
“But for this open unfortunate statement by Mr. Juantuah, the NPP would have assumed that it was just one of those things. As things stand, however, the NPP believes that the journalist ostensibly has a heinous agenda against the NPP and the NPP and government,” he said.
Mr Kwakwa therefore called on the National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Journalists
Association (GJA) to take particular interest in this matter, and question the journalist over his conduct and in making that statement.
The party also threatened to petition the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) “as far as the criminal aspect of the matter is concerned,” Mr Dennis Kwakwa added
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