The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketia has urged the public to disregard claims of the availability of a report by the Kwesi Botchwey fact finding Committee.
According to him, the committee has completed its work but it’s yet to put the findings together into a report.
There have been media reports that the 13-member committee’s report among other things has made adverse findings which reflect badly on former President John Mahama’s chances of running for President again.
According to the Today Newspaper, Mr Mahama’s failure to present himself as an incorruptible person, is one of the major reasons he lost to Nana Akufo-Addo.
The paper said, for instance, at one of the committee’s meetings held outside Accra last month to put finishing touches to the report, its sources said the report nearly hit a snag as former President Dramani Mahama’s loyalists vehemently opposed the recommendation of having a new presidential candidate for the party in 2020.”
According to the paper, excerpts of the report also recommended that any future presidential nominee of the NDC must work in tandem with the party structures by bringing on board national and regional executives, polling agents and those at the grassroots to help in campaigning.
On why President Dramani Mahama should be replaced, the paper said the report pointed out that the 2016 flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is now the President, used his incorruptible mantra to the disadvantage of “our (NDC’s) candidate who was alleged to have endorsed corruption in his government.”
“The NPP won because their leader was acclaimed to be incorruptible while ours was tainted with corruption and bribery, so going into the 2020 elections we (Kwesi Botchwey Committee) propose that we elect somebody who can also claim to be incorruptible,” the newspaper said the report observed.
It also published that the report noted that: “Our own media organisations were made to starve while the then pro-opposition media were given resources, with the view that they would leak information to us, but nothing of that sort happened.”
But General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia insists the claims are baseless as the committee has not even put together a draft report.
“They’re are claiming the report is 67-paged but it has not been written yet, so where from that figure. The Newspapers talk of ex-President John Mahama’s chances leading the NDC again, but the committee was not given that mandate to make such conclusion. I think the bulk of the report will be about recommendation on the way forward as the committee was mandated to do and not about pinpointing individuals and putting blame on them. We NDC are futuristic and so we asked the committee to identify what denied us of the electoral victory and suggest ways the NDC can put itself together and come back to power. Anyone who expects something different from what I’ve said will be disappointed.”
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