General News of Thursday, 19 September 2013

Source: TV3 News

Nana Akomea to contest NPP 2016 flagbearership race

Former Director of Communications for the 2012 Campaign of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akomea has hinted that he is “suitable” to contest the flagbearership race of the party for the 2016 presidential elections.

He, however, stressed that he will throw his support behind two-time candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, if he offers himself up again to run.

Nana Akomea was speaking to TV3’s Edward Kwabi in an interview on Wednesday, September 18, 2013, a day after he announced he had stepped down as the party’s Communications Director.

The Former Information Minister explained that in running to lead the NPP, a candidate has to assess his “suitability” and “acceptability”.

“It is not by appointment,” he pointed out, indicating that he qualifies to run since as a politician “you want to serve in any capacity…once it is suitable, once it is appropriate, once it is opportune”.

“[But] I believe that Nana Akufo-Addo is still the most popular person in the party,” he observed.

“If he says he is not going to offer himself, of course the field becomes wider and then you have to look at what the ground is.”

He said over 127,000 members of the NPP have to be consulted in this bid. Nana Akomea on Tuesday posted on his Facebook Page that he had stepped down as the party’s Communications Director of the 2012 Campaign.

“There is no resignation,” he clarified, adding that the position was on appointment by Nana Addo prior to the 2012 campaign and "the campaign effectively" came to an end on Thursday, August 29,2013.