NDC’s assertion on Bryan Acheampong's comment lacks substance - NPP
The New Patriotic Party says a statement made by the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, to the effect that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government will never hand over power to the NDC was a direct response to threats by leading members of the NDC.
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According to the NPP, the NDC’s assertion on Bryan Acheampong’s comment lacks substance, adding that the NDC was deliberately twisting the comment.
"The NPP finds the NDC's statement not only ill-founded, hypocritical, illogical, and baseless, but also one that lacks contextual substance for the consumption of discerning Ghanaians who are not oblivious to the modus operandi of the main opposition party in deliberately putting diabolic and mischievous slant to an otherwise innocuous comment such as the comments made by the Member of Parliament, in furtherance of their selfish political interest," the NPP said.
Mr Acheampong, who is also the NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Abetifi, during a rally to climax a health walk organised by the NPP at Kwahu in the Eastern Region on Saturday, April 8, 2023 said the NPP would never hand over power to the NDC.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture said the NPP would do anything within its means to retain power in the 2024 general election.
He said the NPP had what it takes to quell any form of ill conduct that the NDC might be planning to use to win the 2024 elections.
What Bryan Acheampong said
NDC will collapse - Bryan Acheampong
NDC's reaction and call for arrest
The NDC has described Mr Acheampong’s statement as "treasonable" and called for his arrest.
“As the political tradition that ushered in our nation's stable constitutional order, the NDC will do whatever it takes to resist the misrule and machination of the oppressor and thus protect and preserve our democracy,” the party stated in a statement signed and issued by its General Secretary, Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey.
“We urge the Ghana Police Service to act with dispatch in this matter. We recall the alacrity with which it recently apprehended and charged the Suame Constituency Youth Organiser of the NDC for expressing views that were deemed to be inciteful,” it said.
“No one is in any doubt that the statement of Bryan Acheampong is even more incendiary and subversive. We ,therefore, expect the same level of speedy action from the Ghana Police Service in arresting Acheampong and bringing him to book,” it said.
Read also: NDC demands Bryan Acheampong's arrest
NPP’s rebuttal
However, supporting Mr Acheampong’s comment in a statement signed and issued by the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua on Monday, the NPP described the NDC's statement as one that “lacked contextual substance for the consumption of discerning Ghanaians”.
“The NPP considers the NDC's attack on Bryan Acheampong not only unwarranted but also attention seeking with an ill attempt to emotionally blackmail Ghanaians to court their support,” it said.
It, therefore, assured Ghanaians of the party’s resolve to guarantee the peace and security of the state by ensuring free, fair, and the most transparent elections in the 2024 general election to maintain the nation's enviable position as the bastion of democracy in Africa.
Meanwhile, the statement by Mr Acheampong has since received varied interpretations.
Among them is the MP for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea, who has said Mr Acheampong’s comment has been taken out of context and that what he meant was that the governing party was going to break the eight.
Attached below is a copy of the statement by the NPP
NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY REACTS TO NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS' ILL- FOUNDED ATTACK ON BRYAN ACHEAMPONG
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has sighted a flippant statement signed by the General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), on comments made by Bryan Acheampong, Member of Parliament for the Abetifi Constituency and Minister for Food and Agriculture while addressing some party supporters in the Eastern Region which the NDC describes as treasonable.
The NPP finds the NDC's statement not only ill-founded, hypocritical, illogical, and baseless, but also one that lacks contextual substance for the consumption of the discerning Ghanaians who are not oblivious to the modus operandi of the main opposition party in deliberately putting diabolic and mischievous slant to an otherwise innocuous comment such as the comments made by the Member of Parliament, in furtherance of their selfish political interest.
Since the NDC pretends not to appreciate and logically decode Bryan's message, we would once again educate them, just as we have done on many occasions. For the avoidance of doubt, Hon Bryan Acheampong, was responding to the NDC's perpetual flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, who had on many occasions described the 2024 general elections as one of "do or die" for the NDC. It is, in fact, a no secret that the NDC has always resorted to violence and intimidation against their opponents during the conduct of general elections, and this was summed up by their 2024 presumptive presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama.
He has stated emphatically that: "NDC has revolutionary root, and that when it comes to unleashing violence, nobody can beat us [NDCJ in unleashing violence".
Other leading members of the NDC, including Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the National Chairman of the Party, have made similar threatening and malicious comments. Indeed, following his election as National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah stated in his victory speech that, the NDC would fight the 2024 general elections to win a second Independence for Ghana, and that, they are prepared to sacrifice everything including lives for an NDC victory.
It was in response to these myriad of reckless and treasonable comments from the NDC that Hon. Bryan Acheampong gave encouragement to supporters of the NPP, who may feel intimated by the many threats coming from the NDC, that, under no circumstance should they feel intimated because the NPP has men of courage who can rise to the defense of our democracy and the 1992 Constitution of the Republic as enshrined in Article 3 of the Constitution.
Hon. Bryan, thereupon, proceeded to give NPP supporters a firm assurance that the Party [NPP] will not lose the 2024 general elections and hand power to the NDC but will do everything to retain power. Considering the steps being taken by the Akufo-Addo-led government to tackling Ghana's socioeconomic challenges, which have begun bearing positive dividends, and also by the conduct of the NPP since the advent of the Fourth Republic, Bryan Acheampong's comment can only be interpreted to mean that the NPP, just as it has done in the past, is determined to do everything legally possible to win the 2024 general elections. The NPP's track record of winning elections through free, fair, and transparent means is not in doubt at all.
It is thus nerve-wracking to see the very persons who have over time made the worst of unguarded statements, and acted in a manner that has the potential to subvert the nation's democratic order and plunge the country into chaos and instability, to turn around and cry foul of a statement that seeks to energize the base of the NPP, give assurance of hope to party faithfuls and the Ghanaian citizenry. Ghanaians are fully awoken to such gimmicks by the NDC.
The NPP considers the NDC's attack on Bryan Acheampong not only unwarranted but also attention seeking with an ill attempt to emotionally blackmail Ghanaians to court their support.
From the foregoing, if anybody has to be arrested by the Police for treasonable comments, then certainly it is John Dramani Mahama for his continuous "Do or die for the NDC in reference to the 2024 general elections, and Asidedu Nketiah for his brazen proclamation that members of the NDC are willing to sacrifice their lives to win the 2024 elections.
We wish to conclude by once again assuring the good people of this great nation that the NPP remains a peace-loving party and would not do anything to jeopardize the peace and security of the state. We hold the enviable title as the bastion of democracy in Ghana and on the African continent, and this, we intend to guard jealously. The 2024 general elections shall be free, fair, and the most transparent elections in the Fourth Republic, and by the grace of God, the NPP would emerge victors to continue our transformation agenda.
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