At about 11:00am Friday, inside the Wumpini Hall of the Radach Memorial Centre/Hotel, Tamale, the Metropolitan Chief Executive Officer of Tamale and three DCEs from the Northern Region gathered 240 constituency officers from all but two of the 26 constituencies in the region.

According to The Statesman, the two-hour meeting was addressed by businessman Paul Afoko, who made a curious claim that Alan Kyerematen was historically the biggest financier to the party among all the aspirants.

He spoke in English, with Tamale MCE Mohammed Amin Antah, translating it in Dagbani. The purpose of the meeting, like several others across the country, according to the newspaper, was to sell the Alan Kyerematen candidacy.

The organizers included Peter Wuni, DCE of Mamprusi East, Saba Wahab, Karaga DCE, and Salifu Sa-eed, Nanumba North DCE.

The Tamale MCE told the gathering that the President knows who best can succeed him so they should not underestimate the import of the President having a preference. He said claims of the President being behind a candidate were true but fell short in expressly linking his candidate to the presidency.

After that he aimed an undisguised shot at Akufo-Addo, effectively repeating the words of the constituency chairman for Nyiaeso, Kofi "Joakad" Agyei that the former Foreign Minister could not be a unifier.

The MCE told the region's constituency officers, minus those from Chereponi and Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo that; "We know not all of you sitting here in this room support Alan but unlike other candidates we don't discriminate that's why we have called all of you together."

Ironically, in the evening of that very Friday, Mr Antah called a selected number of constituency officers to his office in the metropolis. Those in attendance included four officers each from the three Tamale constituencies.

Akufo-Addo's swift sweeping visit of the country where he met most constituency chairmen has been exploited by the Alan camp as discriminatory and a sign of divisionist leading.

At the Raddach meeting, Mr Afoko stressed how desirable it was for Mr Kyerematen to succeed President Kufuor because his candidate has sacrificed a lot for the party and has much more of an appeal to floating voters than NDC candidate John Evans Atta Mills.

He criticised other aspirants for boasting long service to the party, which he said paled into insignificance when compared to the contribution made by Mr Kyerematen since 1992. Mr Afoko claimed that none of the other candidates invested their money into the party like Mr Kyerematen did.

The paper said the strategy of the Alan camp has been to spread similar messages to both the Upper East and Upper East Regions, citing the Presidential Special Initiatives as blooming examples of what an Alan presidency would mean to the people of the north. PSI in sorghum and sugar cane, and the tomato factory were just some of the examples shown.

The Statesman said when it contacted Shaiba Shani, Northern Regional NPP Organiser about the Radach Hotel meeting, he said although he was aware such a meeting took place, he was not privy to what was said there since it was not channeled through the regional office of the party as it is normally the case.



The Statesman