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Regional News of Wednesday, 19 May 2004

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NDC Strips Ex-DCE Naked

In reaction to the defection of its former District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. I.B. Kyere to the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP), the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has stripped him naked in public.

A press release issued in Sunyani by the Berekum constituency of the NDC has indicated that Mr. Kyere, in his four - year tenure of office as DCE for Berekum, corruptly acquired three houses, a saloon car and dubiously confiscated someone?s cocoa farm at Sefwi in the Western Region.

The NDC is now demanding that Mr.Kyere should explain what he understood by the term ?transparency.? The former NDC guru had deserted the party and joined the ruling NPP, citing lack of transparency in the NDC as some of the factors accounting for his defection. This reason has not gone down well with the NDC so they are demanding an explanation as to how he acquired the three houses, the saloon car and the cocoa farm illegally confiscated from a poor farmer at Sefwi, with the help of fictitious documents.

Touching on his defection, the party disclosed that he had taken the decision to join the NPP in 2000, soon after the election.

According to the release signed by the Berekum constituency Chairman of the NDC, Mr. I.B. Obeng, the former DCE took the decision only because he did not want to lose his job as the Brong Ahafo Regional NADMO Coordinator. But, this, as stated by the party did not help him as he was whittled to a mere staff of NADMO at the Tano District. They stated that a reliable source close had disclosed that Mr. Kyere had prostrated in front of the former Brong Ahafo Minister, now Northern Regional Minister, Mr. Akuboah Debrah to swear that he had never been a member of the NDC.

The NDC added that Mr. Kyere was made to mount an NPP platform at Dumase to tell NPP functionaries that he was not an NDC member. The NDC says the defection of Mr. Kyere has not affected the party, but rather strengthened it in the constituency, particularly at the hometown of the former DCE.

The statement indicated that ?for Mr. Kyere to come out now after three and half years with the ruling NPP, suggests that he is being mischievous?, adding: ?we have reliable information that Mr. Kyere was forced to go public as a condition for retaining his job with the NADMO.