NPP Congress: Akufo-Addo dumps Jake

Mr. Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey is said to have become very bitter. The basis for his anger is that the 2008 and 2012 flagbearer of the party he leads, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo has “stabbed” him in the back.

A credible source close to the Obetsebi-Lamptey camp in the NPP confirms that Nana Akufo-Addo has called and asked him to step down from contesting for the post of the National Chairman.

According to the source, the reason for Nana Akufo-Addo’s action is that the party's national chairman was mainly responsible for the NPP’s painful defeat in the 2012 elections.

The source said an argument subsequently ensued between Jake and Nana, during which the NPP national chairman is said to have told Nana Addo that his accusation lacks scientific basis, in that, no research had been carried out by the party to determine what really went into the party’s defeat as far as the 2012 election is concerned.

The source said Jake’s view is that the NPP is bigger than former President John Kufuor, Akufo-Addo or any individual; and that he would contest to retain his chairmanship position.

The source, however, fired a friendly warning to the Akufo-Addo camp, thus “if they (Akufo-Addo boys) try anything funny, we will match them boot for boot”.

To call the bluff of the 2008/2012 flagbearer, Mr. Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, according to media reports, announced his intent of contesting once again the National Chairmanship position of his party in his new year message to party stalwarts, and pledged if elected, will bring to bear experience and lessons learnt from the 2012 general elections, so as to ensure victory for the party in 2016.

"...this is the time for me to announce formally that I will be seeking to be re-elected as your National Chairman. I believe we did well in 2012, but we need to do better in 2016 and to do that, we need to build on the experience and learnings we have gained.

"That is why I am offering myself with my experience and learnings of especially the last election, for re-election and for 'Victory 2016”.

The race for the NPP's National Chairmanship slot is getting hotter as other party bigwigs including Steven Ntim, Fred Oware and Paul Afoko have all declared their intentions of unseating the incumbent Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.

Meanwhile, Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey has commended party faithful for the "mature way" in which they handled the recently organised internal elections. He noted that, "Competition will always stir passion, so it is no surprise that some places should have reached boiling points".

"But we should look at our achievements. We have elected almost 130,000 polling station executives across the country. We have also successfully elected executives for over 90% of the 275 constituencies. This would be a high pass mark in any examination. So I say Ayekoo," Jake is reported to have said.