NPP Prepares for Rawlings 'Second Visit' to Kumasi

All is set for a big showdown by the Ashanti branch of the NPP in what is expected to be a massive demonstration against former President Rawlings' intended "second coming" to the Garden City.

The planned demonstration is against the background of what many people perceive as a smear campaign of lies by the former president to divide the united front of the NPP's support base.

The NPP has warned Mr. Rawlings to restrain himself or be prepared for a stiff opposition any time he sets foot in Kumasi.

The alertness follows the promise by Mr. Rawlings, on July 7, that he would return to Kumasi and lead NDC's proposed March for Survival against the government.

The ex-president declared that he would use the occasion to tell Ashantis all the truth about the level of corruption and the "sort of things" that go on in the NPP as well as the names of the 15 members of the government, he claims are implicated in the murders of 34 women.

Mr. F.F. Antoh, Ashanti regional chairman of the party, unveiling the party's plan to The Chronicle in an interview, observed that the former president had been given too much freedom to satisfy his whims and caprices and it is about time Ghanaians pointed out to him that he couldn't continue to take them for a ride.

"We are done with all the necessary plans and the regional secretary has been tasked to liaise with the Regional Police Command to secure a police permit that will grant us the legal backing to demonstrate against Mr. Rawlings any time he arrives in Kumasi" the chairman explained.

Antoh declined Chronicle's request to disclose the strategies to be adopted against Mr. Rawlings when he arrives in Kumasi but simply said " we will put our ears on the ground."

The party chairman condemned the attack by the ex-president on the current president and his Defence minister-brother, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor and said that the pronouncements were least expected from a former head of state of a country like Ghana.

He denied that the demonstration against the former president is calculated to force the NDC to call off its march in the city in which the ex-president has promised to feature prominently.

He explained that the NPP is a principled party and would not do anything that would amount to infringing on the constitutional rights of any individual or group.

The NPP chairman continued that the NPP demonstration is not against the NDC as a party but the former president in person.

"The regional branch of the NPP will only call off the planned demonstration if the former president heeds the numerous calls on him to retract his recent offensive utterances and render an unqualified apology to the president, the NPP and the good people of Ghana as a whole," Antoh stated.