The Volta Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Peter Amewu says the ethnocentric comments made by the former Minister of Transport, Mrs. Dzifa Ativor, should be seen as an act likely to disturb the peace being enjoyed in the country.
He has, therefore, called on President Mahama to openly condemn the conduct of his former minister to serve as a deterrent to others. To Mr. Amewu, the continuous silence by the president was not healthy in deepening peace in the country, stressing that Mrs. Ativor’s utterances clearly signal high corrupt practices going on under the NDC administration.
According to the NPP Regional Chairman, it sounds absurd for the former Minister and a leading member of the ruling NDC to call on the people of the Volta Region to vote for the NDC and not NPP, for fear of being prosecuted when the NPP wins the upcoming general elections. Addressing a press conference in Ho recently, Mr. Amewu pointed out that the people of the Volta region were noted for their hard work, dedication and honesty.
He, however, noted that if the former transport Minister, who comes from the Volta region, had thrown away all the cherished virtues the people in the region uphold and involved herself in corruption, she should not use it to incite other tribes against the people in the region and tarnish the image of the NPP.
“If a citizen of the Volta Region, like Mrs. Ativor, was involved in corrupt practices at the time she was a Minister, and she used resources gathered from such corrupt practices to benefit herself and her family, she should stop behaving as if she was sent by the people of the Volta region to engage in such corrupt activities to merit calls on the people to vote for NDC for her not to be prosecuted by NPP government,” he said.
Mr. Amewu said the impression Mrs. Ativor was creating that, the NPP-led government under former President Kufuor only prosecuted NDC Ministers from the Volta region was wrong, noting that former President Kufuor in his determination to fight corruption investigated and prosecuted those found to be guilty, including ministers of the former NDC and NPP governments, such as Malam Issah and former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.
The NPP Regional Chairman observed that, Mrs. Ativor suggested that the Volta region and its people were targeted in the previous NPP administration by citing the prosecution of Messrs Dan Abodakpi, Victor Selormey and Tsatsu Tsikata as evidence in her infamous speech. This claim, Peter Amewu noted, was not only incorrect but also dangerously ethnocentric, misleading and reckless.
The NPP Regional Chairman explained that the previous NPP administration’s desire to hold persons accountable for their stewardship was firmly grounded in the party’s belief that governments must conduct the affairs of the state in a manner that benefits not the governors but the governed, which was clearly demonstrated by the President Kufuor-led administration, without fear, favour or bias.
He continued that former President Kufuor also initiated investigations and criminal prosecutions against persons such as former First lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and Kwame Peprah, who are Ashantis, and questioned whether the NPP also targeted the Ashanti region.
“No wonder, even though her own former colleague Attorney General recommended her prosecution after investigations into the Smattys Bus Branding scandal, she was merely asked to resign her position and she should be reminded that she did what she did, not on the authority of the Volta region, as the benefits accrued to her alone,” he stressed.
Mr. Amewu assured the people of the Volta region of fair sharing of national resources under a Nana Akufo Addo-led government adding that the NPP flagbearer is a peace loving person and not tribalistic, as stated by former President J. J Rawlings.
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