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General News of Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Source: The Catalyst

Afoko jabs Jake

AKUFO-ADDO IN SHOCK AS

Reports reaching The Catalyst from the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) delegates’ conference in Tamale have it that Nana Akufo-Addo, two-time defeated presidential candidate of the opposition NPP is in a state of shock following Paul Afoko’s victory over incumbent Chairman of the party Jake Obetsebi Lamptey.
Nana Addo was reportedly shaken by the results that emerged from the conference, especially that of the chairmanship race in which Paul Afoko, who had been vilified since he decided to contest, beat Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.
Afoko polled 2032 votes to beat his closest challenger, Stephen Ntim who polled 1,500 votes. Incumbent chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey could only manage 66. He was initially reported to have polled 65 but one of his votes was later found mixed with that of another aspirant.
Nana Addo had hooked his hopes on Jake and other incumbent office holders’ victory, firmly believing that he held the key to his victory against Alan Kyeremanten when the two lock horns later to determine who leads the party into the 2016 general elections.
The victory confirms the fact that some elements in the party, believed to Jake’s agents, who had a premonition of the disaster ahead, deliberately embarked on a campaign to malign Afoko to destroy his chances of sitting in the chair of the party.
There were rumors that the incumbent, Jake, was deeply involved in the plot to disqualify Afoko, using all sorts of guerilla tactics.
An attempt was first made to disqualify him with a protest that he had once been arrested in the UK for doing drugs and the vetting committee had to take a long time to dismiss those reports after contacting the Interpol and other concerned security agencies.
After failing in the first attempt the same elements, believed to be linked to Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey tried another plot; this time around they claimed he was gay, a claim he refuted. All these moves were to prevent him from having enough time to campaign.
Agents of Jake in the vetting committee were actively playing their part in the plot by delaying the announcement of decisions that cleared Afoko with the intent of weakening his campaign and favoring Jake Obetsebi Lamptey whose chairmanship was considered a total failure.
Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyepong, had even called Jake a thief, roping in the incumbent executives most of whom have lost their positions to their opponents.
The stage is now set for the real contest to determine who leads the party into the 2016 elections, with Alan Kyeremanten and Nana Addo sorting things out.