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Diasporia News of Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Source: True Statesman

NPP's flopped London Demo Costs ¢ 5Billion

By The True Statesman

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) who continue to complain of high cost of living in Ghana and the insensitivity of the Atta Mills led administration has spent a whooping GH¢5 billion on a demonstration in London in what they say was to draw the attention of the outside world on the increasing levels of corruption the Mills' administration.

This includes travelling allowances for the footsoldiers who travelled to London for the demonstration, hotel bills, air fares, feeding and other overhead expenditures.

Our investigations reveal that, the cost of an average hotel in London is about £164 and if one multiplies that by over 40 foot soldiers, who spent at least four days in London, excluding the food they ate, that amount could help change the lives of those people here in Ghana.
It has also emerged that all the 40 foot soldiers who were sent to London to engage in the demonstration took home £20,000 as travelling allowance.
The demonstration which took place in London on Friday was led by Gabby Otchere Darko, Executive Director of the Danquah Institute and Titus Glover of the Young Patriots.
They assembled at Archway Tube Station, London, marched to the Ghana High Commission, where they presented a formal petition to the High Commissioner, Prof. Kwaku Danso-Boafo.
An Englishwoman who went to the consulate to renew her visa to do business in Ghana, according to our source, asked, “if the economy of Ghana was that bad, why are they demonstrating in the UK when the International community has adjudged Ghana as one of the best performing economies in the West African sub region?”
Another woman who identified herself as Madam Grace who knows the affairs of Ghana very well said, “These are funny bunch of crooks and liars trying to denigrate their country; why are they doing this to their own country?”
According to them, it was meant to protest against the controversial GHC 52 million judgment debts paid to business mogul, Alfred Agbesi Woyome and other judgment debts they say are unjustified. The demonstration nearly brought activities of the embassy to a standstill.
Sources close to The True Statesman say attendance was very poor as demonstrators numbered not more than 50 people.
The question many Ghanaians are asking is how come a person residence in Ghana and part of Akufo Addo's communication team would go to London to speak for Ghanaians in Diaspora?The demonstration could have been organized here in Ghana but as to how the organizers chose to do it in the United Kingdom will continue to surprise many Ghanaians for many years to come.
The NPP claim times are hard, and that there is no money in their pockets yet they were able to get money for their foot soldiers to fly to London and engage in such useless demonstration.
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