The National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Samuel Ofosu Ampofo has justified the decision by the party leadership to apologise to the Okyenhene on behalf of the Ashanti Regional Secretary, Kwame Zu.
It comes after some members of the party took to social media to criticise the move.
Speaking Thursday evening at a symposium and Handing over ceremony by the Koforidua Technical University branch of TEIN, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo said the leadership of the party under former President John Mahama is committed to living in harmony with relevant stakeholders in the country.
“I have been reading some sad commentaries on Social media, and I want to be a leader. I want to lead the NDC the right way and do the right thing. People are saying that why is it that a deputy Minister insulted people from the North and he did not apologize, why is it that Freddy Blay insulted Togbe Afede and did not apologize. NDC is different from NPP, I cannot be a member of NPP because I don’t want to belong to an indiscipline entity”.
He added” So I want to send a very clear message that NDC wants to win power to form the next government and we want to form the next government on a solid rock, solid ground, grounded in discipline, grounded in respect for rule of law, grounded in respect for traditional authorities, grounded in respect for our religious leaders because they are non-state actors who contribute towards our governance process”
Mr.Ampofo also clarified that the NDC did not perform any rituals at Okyenhene’s palace adding “Okyeman said that they performed a ritual to invoke that ban and so in our presence, they want to perform a ritual to reverse the ban and invocation that they did when they performed that ritual”.
The Overlord of Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, unconditionally accepted the apology of the Ashanti Regional Secretary of opposition NDC, Kwame Zu on Thursday.
Okyenhene granted clemency to Kwame Zu and forgave him of the fine of 98 sheep and 98 bottles of schnapps demanded earlier by the traditional Council. Okyenhene advised Kwame Zu to “go and sin no more”.
This was after the National Chairman of the opposition NDC Samuel Ofosu Ampofo led a delegation accompanied by Kwame Zu to render an apology to Okyenhene. According to Okyenhene, he holds no grudge against the NDC party.
Background.
The Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council on September 3,2019 issued three day ultimatum to the National leadership of the Opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) to render a direct,clear and unambiguous public apology to His Royal Majesty Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin and Okyeman or risk being “banned from all official functions Organized by the Ofori Panin stool and shall be declared Persona non grata in all palaces of the over 940 towns,villages and settlements in Akyem Abuakwa”.
Addressing the media after a protest by Chiefs and subjects of the traditional area at Kyebi, the state Secretary Daniel Marfo Ofori Atta stated that, apart from the apology the Council was demanding “a ritual pacification be performed to appease His Majesty the Okyenhene, an apology rendered personally by Mr.Kwame Zu to the Okyenhene and a Public recantation of the offensive words and specific conduct complained off, and finally invocation of appropriate disciplinary sanctions of the party against the Conduct of Kwame Zu “.
The Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council stated that “should the NDC choose to ignore these pronouncements and demands, Nananom will not accord them any future request for clemency and redemption of their transgressions”.
The Council subsequently served notice that any Chief in Akyem Abuakwa will be destooled if it acted in aberration to the ban on NDC executives from Branch, constituency, Regional and National Executives should the party fail to apologize.
Traditional Council catalogued various incidents of similar scathing attacks by prominent persons in the NDC including Julius Debrah, Tawiah Boateng, Haruna Appaw Wiredu-both former regional Executives of NDC and Stan Dogbe against Okyenhene over the years under the leadership of John Mahama whom they accused of remaining silent.
The protest by the Akyem Abuakwa was provoked by statement made by the Ashanti Regional Secretary of NDC, Kwame Zu while addressing participants of a demonstration by the Coalition for National Sovereignty that a water treatment project which was provided in the hometown of the current President, Kyebi, saved the Okyenhene from drinking from polluted river with animals .
Responding to this claims, the traditional council stated that, “Kyebi has had pipe-borne Water since the year 1954-three Clear years before independent Ghana was born”.
According to the Council, the Kyebi Water Expansion project was initiated by President Kufuor in 2007 “funded by the taxpayers of Austria and completed in 2011 under President Mills” commending Former President Mahama for commissioning it.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5fm/Kojo Ansah
