Join hands with govt - Abass tells CPP

Alhaji Mohammed Abass Mensah, Overseas Organiser of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) in London, has called on the CPP to join hands with the government to put the country back on course.

He said the bond of unity that had been established between the CPP and UP tradition, the two original parties that fought for the country's independence, must not be allowed to slip.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the current call by some party members that Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Integration and Mr Freddie Blay, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, should be expelled from the party, Alhaji Abass said the two people had not done anything that warranted their expulsion.

''It is preposterous to call for their expulsion. These two men are key figures in the party and President Kufuor has very cordial relations with the CPP and as such the party should not destroy this new found relationship.''

Alhaji Abass said his call for support did not, however, mean that the CPP should not criticise the government when it went wrong but that such criticism should be constructive based on a mistake committed by the government.

''The present democratic dispensation in the country is a source of joy to every Ghanaian both at home and abroad and therefore, people should not start inflaming passions.''

Alhaji Abass said CPP supporters were not only getting agitated by the spate of articles and newspaper publications about the party but were also getting fed up with people who were bent on destroying the party through the unending wrangling.

He cautioned the NPP not to follow the footsteps of the NDC who drew most of CPP followers into its fold thereby, weakening the party, adding that there should be no one party state in Ghana again since Ghanaians rejected the one party state of the first republic.

''There should be a credible and strong opposition at all times to put the government on its toes to ensure good governance.''

Alhaji Abass called on Ghanaians to look up to the CPP as the alternative government to the NPP since it was the party with a tradition.