Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress has revealed the tipping point in former President Kufuor’s much-reported strained relationship with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Despite the usual show of respect and love at public events, the two NPP bigwigs are believed to have a frosty relationship.
According to Asiedu Nketia, their relationship broke down completely during the 2008 elections.
Asiedu Nketia claimed on Asempa FM that the perceived lack of support from Kufuor for candidate Akufo-Addo was the final straw in their already strained relationship.
General Mosquito as he is affectionately called, narrates that in the lead up to the 2008 elections run-off in Tain, Nana Akufo-Addo accused Kufuor of not rigging the votes in his favour.
He alleged that Kufuor and Akufo-Addo fought at a residence of former Prime Minister, Busia ahead of the Tain elections.
“Before we went to Tain for the run-off, President Kufuor said that whoever wins, he will hand over to him. Because of that when the NPP officials got to Busia’s house in Wenchi, Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo fought. Nana was angry that Kufuor was not using incumbency to rig the elections. So, they fought in Busia’s house”, he said.
Asiedu Nketia also detailed how the NDC derailed a plot by the NPP to rig the 2008 elections in the Ashanti Region.
He says that the NPP, with the connivance of some EC officials attempted to inflate figures but the ‘vigilant’ NDC elections officials caught them off guard and reported the issue to then EC boss Kwadwo Afari Djan.
“In 2008 certain things happen. They divided certain constituencies in the Ashanti Region. Ejisu for instance was divided into Juaben but their numbers was huge. Between 2004 and 2008 the numbers of some constituencies more than doubled so we raised concern. Eventually the EC agreed with our figures. We were saying the registers have been bloated but they had a different term”, he said.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
