NPP advised to be cautious with defectors

Kyebi (E/R), Jan. 14, GNA - Mr Peter Mac Manu, National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has advised executive members of the party not to rush to welcome defectors from other political parties but to first preserve the existing members before going in for the defectors.

He predicted that the resignations going on at the national levels of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would continue to the lower levels of the party.

Mr Mac Manu was speaking at a mini-rally at Kyebi on Friday, attended by polling station executives of the NPP in the Abuakwa South constituency on the first day of his three-day tour of the Eastern Region.

He said the NPP had started the journey to victory in the 2008 election and called on the members to defend the government's achievements.

Mr Mac Manu said the NPP did not fear to be in opposition but cherished responsible, civil and peaceful opposition. The Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr Felix Owusu-Agyepong, urged members to respect the arrangements that had been put forward by the party hierarchy for the election of the presidential and parliamentary candidates for constituencies where the party lost in the last elections.

He explained that such a programme was a safe way to ensure that the party maintained its unity and strength to win the 2008 election. Mr Owusu-Agyepong advised the supporters to propagate the success stories of the party and the government and stop complaining that they have not seen anything.

He said such complaints provided propaganda materials for their opponents to attack the achievements of the party.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said the NPP was a mass party and not a party for an individual and so it was often the judgment of the majority that decided everything.

In a welcoming address, the Eastern Regional Chairman Mr Yaw Gyekye Amoabeng, assured the party supporters that there was hope for them and called for the revival of the unity that greeted the party in 1992.

Before the rally, Mr Mac Manu and his entourage paid a courtesy call on the Okyenhene, Osagyefour Amoatia Ofori Panin at his palace.