NDC IN ‘DIRTY’ FIGHT OVER ‘CHOP CHOP’
Nketia, Ampofo camps at each other’s throat
As the days draw nigh for the opposition National Democratic Congress to elect its national officers, supporters of the two leading contenders for the chairmanship position, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and Johnson Asiedu Nketia, are throwing allegations and counter allegations against each other, signaling a worrying development for the party.
Many pundits fear that, if care is not taken, the upcoming NDC congress could be a repetition of the Koforidua debacle that saw leading cadres like Frances Asiam, Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, Bede Anwataazumo Ziedeng, among others, jettisoning the party to form the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP).
The recent attacks making waves on social and traditional media, particularly, NDC affiliated media, emanate from a contract awarded to provide an electronic payment platform for the party, which some say was awarded on questionable grounds.
Said Sinare, National Vice Chairman and an apparatchik of Chairman Ofosu Ampofo, at a campaign platform for the latter, accused the NDC General Secretary, Asiedu Nketia, of being ‘selfish and corrupt’.
He alleged that Asiedu Nketia single-handedly awarded a sole-sourced contract to his son, making the Nketia family to obtain 20 per cent from any money paid to the party using the platform. He described Asiedu Nketia as “a threat to the party’s 2024 victory”.
Response
In a statement, the Asiedu Nketia camp refuted the allegation, and also accused a Deputy General Secretary of the party, in charge of Finance and Administration, Barbara Serwaa Asamoah, who is supporter of Chairman Ofosu Ampofo, of trying to award the contract to a company “owned by an active senior official of the New Patriotic Party (NPP),” for parochial gains.
“How on earth could the NDC have allowed an NPP official to oversee the collection of NDC funds? No way!” a statement issued by Edem Agbana, Deputy National Youth Organiser and Spokesperson of the Asiedu Nketia Campaign team, said.
He explained: “Following a decision by the party to set up an electronic payment platform, Deputy General Secretary, Barbara Asamoah, was tasked to invite proposals from interested companies, and she was charged to also find out for colleague FEC [Functional Executive Committee] members if they know any firms with the required Fintech experience to submit their bids.”
“Madam Asamoah is the one who received and submitted a shortlist of the bids she received to a committee, which was put together to handle procurements, and chaired by General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia,” it alleged.
Mr Agbana emphasised that “at all times, it was Barbara Asamoah who received the bids, and submitted the shortlisted entities submitted to the party’s committee for consideration.”
“Therefore, the claims by the National Vice Chairman, in the presence of the National Chairman, that Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah single handedly picked and dictated to FEC on the selected company are false and should be completely disregarded,” he added.
Rebuttal
In a sharp rebuttal, Ms Asamoah insisted she had no idea of the company that won the contract. She also alleged that the company that won the contract was submitted to the party by Dr Peter Boamah Otokunor, a Deputy General Secretary and a loyalist of Asiedu Nketia.
Barbara Asamoah explained that she had “been a lead advocate championing a modernized electronic payment system for the past two years as a measure to resource the party adequately”
“Yet, I have been silent about issues leading to the selection of the vendor because I do not want the rank and file of the party to lose confidence in the system, knowing the amount of energy I put into the establishment of the party’s electronic payment system,” she said in a statement.
She explained that when she was put in charge of the selection process, only two companies submitted their bids to her.
The companies, she said, included “Global icon Agency limited with company registration number CS199352013, submitted by Daniel Austin who is the son of the former DCE of KEEA, Thomas Austin Ankomah, from 1991 to 2000.”
“Daniel Austin was a parliamentary aspirant on the ticket of the NDC at KEEA in the 202O NDC parliamentary primaries and at the time the Regional Director of I.T. in the Central region. It must be placed on record that he was willing to offer the software and its services at zero cost to the party,” she added.
The other company was “ELEKSTECHIQ limited company with registration number CS099350722, submitted by Nana Grant, a known NDC member who lives in Canada and the son of Nana Addo Aikins, PNDC tribunal chairman from Akropong constituency.”
“However, the third company, RX-Zone Technologies, which eventually won the bid submitted their proposal to Peter Boamah Otokunor, therefore I do not have any information on that company,” she alleged.
“I have provided the company registration details of the two companies that submitted their bids to me for anybody to check whether they have any links to any NPP bigwigs, because when they were submitted to me, I did the necessary background checks and there were no indications whatsoever that they were linked to any NPP bigwig.
“The next time Edem Agbana is releasing such press statements, he should check the accuracy of the information he puts out before he tries to create any impression that I had anything to do with the company that won the bid. Our fidelity to the truth must not shift with the advent of internal competition,” she cautioned.
The NDC is expected to hold its National Congress on December 17, 2022.
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