Stay away from Navrongo Central: Kofi Adda supporters warn Akufo-Addo

Politics of Sunday October 11, 2020

Source: Starr FM

2020-10-11

For reasons not yet known, President Akufo-Addo skipped Navrongo by Paga on his two-day tour of the Upper East region, but several determined-looking supporters of Joseph Kofi Adda, the Navrongo Central legislator, traveled to the busy border town. and delivered an exciting message as the president was addressing an outdoor meeting Thursday night.

Dressed in political T-shirts marked with campaign portraits of Akufo-Addo and Kofi Adda, they announced to the world in raw anger that the division had fallen on the ruling New Patriotic Party (PNP) in Navrongo and strongly warned President Akufo-Addo to stay on. away from the ominous situation in that constituency and await the ‘pleasant consequences’ of the deepening rift by December 7, 2020, Election Day.

They told the press at the meeting that after the Minister of Aviation lost his bid for re-election to Upper East Regional Minister Tangoba Abayage in the June primary elections, the winning side ruled out the army of supporters behind the veteran. legislator as if it did not matter to go to the main elections of 2020.

“Not all is well in Navrongo Central. We have a divided front. There is no respect for the Honorable Joseph Kofi Adda and his followers. The parliamentary candidate, the Honorable Paulina Abayage, does not respect the deputy in office. The president, the first vice president, almost all the executives of the constituency, except two, but the rest, do not even show respect to the rank and file. They marginalized us. They have hijacked the party.

“The seat is intended for NDC, but it is due to the personality of the Honorable Joseph Kofi Adda. We like it because it’s the kind we want. He sacrifices; he doesn’t even mind starving while giving what he has in his pocket. Just within these four years, if you were to list the number of projects the Honorable Joseph Kofi Adda has done, you would be surprised. It works with the base, ”the PNP Coordinator for the Akumbisi-Gerebisi Electoral Area, Desire Ayariga, said with fury.

Party Chairman for Pungu Central Electoral Area Gilbert Baase emphasized: “The president should have won at Navrongo this time, but we don’t think it is possible. The president should have won en masse if Kofi Adda had moved in with him. Even as we speak, there are some who don’t even know that Kofi won’t be back. They have put us aside in everything. Kofi Adda is a household name. We are supposed to use Kofi Adda to campaign. Nobody knows Nana at Navrongo. Whoever wears Kofi Adda is who we vote for. “

NDC has won the seat upfront: Adda supporters

From 1996 to 2016, the PNP won the parliamentary seat five times and its main contender, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), twice. Adda has contested five times with four wins, the former Energy Minister losing only once to former Defense Minister Mark Owen Woyongo in 2012.

When asked if it was possible for the NPP to trade the seat back to the NDC with only eight weeks to go until the 2020 election, the leaders of the Adda devotees told reporters Thursday that it was later.

“It is not too late alone; there is nothing we can do. If we, as delegates, as coordinators, think it is too late, you can imagine it. We want Nana (President Akufo-Addo) to stay on the sidelines [and] just look at us. Whatever happens, we are members of NPP. It should just look at us. That can save you. You should stand aside and allow whatever happens to happen; it can still work in his favor, for him. If he (the president) supports whoever it is, it means that Navrongo would go back to NDC.

“So for Nana, he should stand aside and watch what is going to happen. Whatever happens, you should look at us. We will send you the comments. But we won’t tell you what will happen. If Nana stayed away and allowed the Navrongo people to take care of their internal affairs, we would come up with something. That will be fine for NPP. Things have gone wrong at Navrongo, but we will correct them. Nana should stand aside and allow things to unfold, ”Baase emphasized.

Local observers have interpreted comments from pro-Adda NPP voters, who say they have continued to suffer victimization in the constituency since the Adda bloc lost the June primaries to the Abayage faction, as a clue that the former Sanitation minister and Water Resources could resurface on the ballot as an independent candidate for the December 7 elections. And fans who confidently show up on Pay Thursday for the feature in Adda-branded campaign T-shirts make the public’s suspicion even more emphatic that a joint campaign for Adda and Akufo-Addo is not only likely, but which may already be in progress in silence for now. .

“The NDC has won the seat in advance. There is no unit in Navrongo Central. Everything is random. When she (the regional minister) won, it was the NDC people who were happy. They couldn’t retire themselves, ”added Desire Ayariga.

NDC parliamentary candidate Samson Tangombu Chiragia had told reporters with obvious joy in June, moments after the Electoral Commission (EC) declared the results of the PNP primaries: “It is a sad day for them. The candidate (Joseph Kofi Adda) that they could have used to win the elections has been fired ”.