Mr Stephen Ashitey Adjei, an executive member of the Tema East branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is alerting the Party to an alleged trap that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was hiding from them.
“It is a well-known fact that our Candidate has been named as a person of interest in an ongoing corruption matter. He and four others have been charged for allegedly embezzling State money. This is worrying,” he said.
Speaking to the Ghana News in Accra on Sunday, Mr Ashitey Adjei warned that the carpet could be pulled from under the feet of the NDC at the eleventh hour, if the party did not take a firm pre-emptive action in respect of its candidate for Tema East, Isaac Ashai Odamtten.
Consequently, Mr. Ashitey Adjei, who is popularly called Moshake said, “the NDC must wake up to the reality and make a firm decision on our PC for Tema East lest events take us by surprise.”
Mr Ashai Odamtten, a former Metropolitan Chief Executive for Tema, is accused of conniving with a private contractor and other suspects to divert Ghc5.6million of State money while he was in office.
Last week, reports emerged that the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) had completed investigation into the allegation and has sought the advice of the Attorney General to prosecute him.
Although, Mr Ashai Odamtten, a trained Priest, has denied the allegations and is said to be poised on having his day in court, Moshake thinks that the presumed innocence of the former Mayor should not be the NDC’s only plan of redemption.
“The allegations may be true or they may be false, whichever they are, our focus as a party should be fielding a Parliamentary candidate for the 2020 election at all cost,” Moshake said.
He advised that the party come together and brainstorm on a game plan with different moving parts. “We should have a plan B and even a plan C, because from all indications, the NPP has a plan to frustrate our current candidate from contesting.”
Moshake also advised Mr Ashai Odamtten to view the situation objectively and take decisive steps. “Since he returned from the US, all manner of people have been swarming around him and apparently misleading him into thinking he can fight government on his own terms.
Nobody has hands long enough to fight government the way he wants to do. I will advise him to stop the partying and hangouts and sit down with the leadership of the party to fashion out a game plan.
“He should remember that the people who have suddenly become latter day apostles around him were the same people who made moves to have him removed as PC, while he was in the US. It had to take a mad man like me to fight off the attempts to have him removed in his absence,” Moshake said.