The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been criticised, for granting radio interviews discussing what transpired after the first meeting to discuss ways to disband party militia groups in the country.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia’s conduct, according to the Communications Director of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), is one that breaches trust and goes against the rules of engagement.
“I find it very unfortunate, that I am compelled to say this because I hear that the general secretary of the NDC has been on several media outlets purporting to say the things that happened in the room during the nearly five hours of talk,” Yaw Buabeng Asamoah said.
He added: “That is totally below the best. That is unacceptable because it goes totally against the rules of engagement. We were told that we were going to communicate singularly through the communiqué.”
The two major political parties, NPP and NDC attended the first party militia meeting which was moderated by the National Peace Council in Accra.
President Akufo-Addo hopes that the two parties can, through the meeting, find ways to deal with the party militia menace which seems to be gradually swallowing the country.
Mr Asiedu Nketia after Tuesday’s meeting granted interviews in which he expressed the NDC’s dissatisfaction at the gathering as their expectations were not met.
“Generally the summary of my impression is that I was disappointed about the outcome of the meeting. My expectation going into the meeting was that the meeting was going to deal with the scope of the discussion i.e, what type of vigilantism are we talking about, and what can we discuss as part of the national dialogue.”
“My second expectation was that we can talk about the level of participation — who are those qualified and based on what criteria would that person participate — this was our understanding of the purpose of this meeting. But unfortunately, when we went, we could neither agree on the scope completely nor the level of participation by other stakeholders,” the General Secretary said.
The NPP believes the NDC scribe’s decision to grant the radio interviews on the meeting was against the rules.
For Mr Asamoah the NDC General Secretary should have known better because his conduct is not one a mature politician like him should exhibit.
“…if we had wanted to hold the meeting in a market place, all the media were there we would have had them in the room…yet they waited in the anteroom until we finished before they came in.
“So how can an eminent and veteran politician like Asiedu Nketia go around saying things that are an interpretation of his own facts. He wants to impose his set of facts on the nation and it is not fair. I will not go down that lane, I will not breach trust,” he added.
He suggested that Mr Asiedu Nketia’s behaviour smacks of someone who wants to intentionally breakdown the talks.
“Why do you go round saying that this person said this, that person said that and this one doesn’t want to do that…why can’t you wait until April 29? Why can’t you write to the Chairman of the Peace Council stating your reservations,” he queried.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
