'Breathalysers must follow Nana Addo' - Deputy NYC co-ordinator

Prince Derrick Adjei, the youngman who caused an uproar yesterday when he stated that the 2012 NPP Presidential Candidate drowned in the crowd at the Fetu Afahye celebration owing to his diminutive height and stature, is in the news again.

The Deputy Coordinator of the National Youth Council (NYC) seems unrelenting in his personal attacks on Nana Addo following his latest diatribe on the NPP Flagbearer.

On Monday, September 6th, Prince Adjei, in the studios of Metro TV, during it’s Good Morning Ghana programme, rationalised the apparent state protocol breach by saying that whatever took place would not have happened if Nana Addo had stayed within his limits and had not wanted to be accorded a status he did not deserve, by trying to upstage President Mills.

The Central Regional branch of the NPP is accusing organizers of this year’s Oguaa Fetu Afahye in the Central Region of sidelining the NPP flag-bearer during the course of the festival even though Nana Addo was invited by the chiefs.

The President’s special aide Nii Lantey Vanderpuije is reported to have stopped Nana Addo on his way to greet the chiefs.

President Mills is also reported to have ignored Nana Addo when he was greeting the people. He was said to have even refused to mention Nana’s name when reading his speech.

Speaking to Radio Gold’s Alhassan Suhini on the ‘Gold Paper Review’, Mr. Adjei reiterated that if anybody describes Nana Addo as short, that person is “never out of context” because “we can all see Nana Addo is short.”

The Deputy Coordinator of the National Youth Council stated that after listening to the explanation by Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, the Oguaa Chief as to why he failed to acknowledge the presence of the NPP Flagbearer, he concluded that; “Nana Addo is short…and below average height… so obviously he was drowned in the crowd,” he said.

The former Ga-Dangme Youth leader who acknowledged that the NPP flagbearer represented a bigger institution than just his physique, however, argued that “…in the crowd people were not allowed to wear NPP and NDC t-shirt…if Nana Addo was wearing an NPP t-shirt he could have been spotted by somebody…his being in Kente and being short in a crowd of thousands of people made it impossible for him to be sighted. That is the fact of the matter…,” he said.

Mr. Adjei again repeated his claims that some supporters who accompanied Nana Addo reeked of alcohol and so were stopped from going to certain places they were not supposed to go.

“…Nobody anticipated that Nana Addo will come with drunken persons and so nobody brought a breathalyzer to the place to ascertain whether indeed Mr. A.B or C were the ones who were drunk…Suhini, if you have a drunk person…in your studio…the scent will be everywhere…until such time that you are able to search and prove that it was Mr. A.B or C, we will say that you are in the company of drunk people…

…I can’t say that Nana Akufo-Addo was drunk…but there was a scent of alcohol around the people who were there. And I have no apologies whatsoever for putting the truth in the public domain. If they have any difficulty, Nana Akufo-Addo should revise his jingle of ‘I’m a short not so handsome young man’ and then we’ll say that he is a ‘tall handsome man’ and then from then on, we will engage it by Nana’s standard…,” he added.

The hot-headed NYC Deputy Co-ordinator was of the view that if the testing of people for substance abuse at public functions is the remedy to ending such needless debate, so be it.

“Henceforth, if all public events, people need to be tested for various substances including alcohol, let that be a new standard, and then I’m sure that this controversy will not arise in the future. If Nana Akufo-Addo is going anywhere breathalyzers must be produced and any other testing device should be put at the disposal…,

Asked if he feels pressurized to render an apology following the political hubbub his remarks have generated, Mr. Prince Derrick-Adjei said, “i don’t feel pressurized at all in saying the truth…If they want to put pressure they need to start with Nana Addo to retract ‘I’m a short not so handsome young man’…I only assembled the facts…,” he stated.