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Opinions of Monday, 16 February 2015

Columnist: Okoampa-Ahoofe, Kwame

Neither Can Messrs. Afoko And Agyepong Flee From ....

Their Anti-Akufo-Addo Track Records, Mr. Pratt

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Feb. 1, 2015
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

Maybe New Patriotic Party detractors like Mr. Kwesi Pratt, managing-editor of the so-called Insight newspaper, ought to be bluntly told that the Bugri Naabu audiotape gimmickry, engineered by operatives of his end of the Ghanaian political spectrum, will not wash (See "Bugri Naabu Can't Run From His Voice - Pratt" Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 2/1/15). The real issue at stake here is not whether the voice allegedly captured on the audiotape is, indeed, that of the Northern Regional Chairman of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), but rather whether the contents of the alleged conversation captured on the tape truly represents the motives and activities and agenda of Messrs. Paul Afoko, the NPP National Chairman, and his General-Secretary, Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong.

If the two top NPP administrators could consent to taking a lie-detector test to convincingly prove that they have not received any V8 vehicles from Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, the younger brother of President John Dramani Mahama, then the NPP would seriously be on its way to making the desired impact come Election 2016. It goes without saying that the only way to clinch a convincing victory two years hence, is for the country's largest political party to present a united front. Taking a credible lie-detector test would be one significant way for Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong and their handful of close associates allegedly fingered on the tape to allay the fears and suspicions of those deeply traumatized by their well-known attempt to derail Nana Akufo-Addo's third shot at the presidency.

As for the alleged protection offered Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong by the Mahama government, it is all too natural and logical. Having rendered themselves quite unpopular in the immediate wake of their respective elections as Chairman and General-Secretary, and in view of the violent confrontation that occurred on their watch at party headquarters, it is for the good of both men and the party at large that Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong are afforded the highest level of protection by our national security agencies. I have personally read in the media and been informed by a reliable source that Mr. Ibrahim Mahama has boasted somewhere that he is the unassailable presidential kingmaker of the New Patriotic Party. Whether such vaunting or allegation of the same is true or not is another matter altogether.

At any rate, it is the least bit of either my concerns or worries presently. I have also stated in a previous article on this subject that the fact that the alleged audiotape recording purported to contain the voice of Mr. Naabu was first aired on an NDC-leaning radio station, or Radio Gold, is all the more to be reasonably suspected of being the handiwork of outside detractors of the party who may have deviously and mischievously collaborated with a handful of disgruntled elements among the executive ranks of the New Patriotic Party.

Mr. Pratt's doubting the credibility of the denial by Mr. Naabu, that the voice heard on the allegedly secretly recorded audiotape conversation belongs to him, has absolutely no relevance and/or significance whatsoever. After all, doesn't even a Ghanaian toddler know that Mr. Pratt is a well-paid propaganda flack of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress, even as he flashily sports his red-cockerel credentials up his sleeves?

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