Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has criticised the candidate presented by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Akwatia by-election stating that he was ‘not fit for purpose’.

According to citinewsroom.com report on September 4, 2025, he alleged that the party sidelined other qualified aspirants and imposed Solomon Kwame Asumadu, Chief Executive Officer of Owuo Mining Company, as its candidate.

“As for the NPP, from day one, they knew they were going to lose this election. The candidate they imposed on the people was not fit for the purpose. If they had known, they wouldn’t have tied the other aspirants’ hands behind them. We went there with a calculated, determined strategy to win the election devoid of violence and that is one aspect the NPP doesn’t know,” he stated.

Gbande argued that the NPP knew defeat was inevitable from the beginning.

Mussa Dankwah gives insight from Akwatia by-election exit poll

The NPP officially endorsed Asumadu on July 28, but he lost the by-election held on September 2, 2025, after securing 15,235 votes.

The NDC’s Bernard Bediako Baidoo polled 18,199 votes out of 33,819 valid votes cast to win the seat.

'They were prepared to finish me if I got this wrong' – Mussa Dankwah

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