A group calling itself Grass Root Supporters Front of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has issued a stern warning to the party’s general secretary to desist raining insults on former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.
In 2011, the NDC’s ever powerful scribe, who had the penchant to insult his political opponents, told now defunct Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) officials who were returning to the NDC that he would have been surprised if they had continued to sit on the fence after taming the barking dog.
The barking dog comment has been interpreted by many to mean he was referring to the NDC founder who had problems with Dr. Obed Asamoah and his group that compelled them to form the DFP.
The group on Tuesday held a news conference to bring the attention of President John Mahama to what they call “Asiedu Nketiah’s insulting behaviour” that has brought disunity in the NDC.
Ekow Edwards, who is the spokesperson of the group, later told Oman FM Wednesday that “If Asiedu-Nketiah could go to the extent of describing our founder as a barking dog then we qualify to call him monkey.”
“If that is what he wants then the barking dog is coming and he should hide himself in a cage. This cannot be an insult because he is always insulting our founder,” he said.
“We call on the President to take action against Asiedu-Nketiah for calling our founder a barking Dog. Since 2009, there have been divisions in the NDC. People have looked on for some greedy bastards to take over the party,” he added.
He said had it not been for the effort of the former President “we would not have the NDC…We in the grass root are fully behind him…Whoever rises against him is going face our wrath.”
Mr. Edwards said that former President Rawlings, after ruling for 19 years, has gained enough experience to be able “to point out our faults and I do not see why people like Asiedu-Nketiah should denigrate him.”
They claimed that, “This is not the first time Asiedu-Nketiah is insulting people in the party. He has done it severally and in each time we let it pass but I think he is crossing the line and we cannot allow him to go on.
“Since we came to power he has belittled anything that JJ says. We say enough is enough. We wish he would leave the party so that we can have our peace.”
The group said that what was irksome about the NDC general secretary’s behaviour was his recent pronouncement that former President Rawlings had to put in an application if he wanted to join the NDC campaign trail.
“What is he trying to tell us? How many votes can he draw for the party that he is behaving this way? We need to face the facts and tell him in the face that that he is destroying our party…He can’t compare himself with JJ when it comes to charisma and instead of speaking to calm matters he goes out there to muddy the waters.
“As general secretary, he has to be disciplined and not go about insulting people. If he insults our founder, I don’t think he expects us to accord him any respect…As grass root supporters if he opens his mouth again we will go for him.”
He cited the treatment by some of the party’s national and regional executives meted out to Andrew Okaikoi, who has since filed to contest as independent candidate, as creating a bad image for the NDC.
Source: GhanaWeb
