Former Central Region Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has urged party delegates to vote out General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, during national executive elections.

According to him, some executives at the party’s headquarters have organised themselves into a mafia and are stalling the progress of the party ahead of general elections in 2020.

This mafia, according to him, is headed by Asiedu Nketia.

Photo: Johnson Asiedu Nketia

Speaking on Adom FM’s Current Affairs show, Burning Issues, Monday the vociferous former Chairman of the party said “for me personally I’m supporting Koku Anyidoho. There is a need for a change at the NDC headquarters. A lot of the mafia in the NDC headquarters must be changed”.

The NDC organised its regional elections over the weekend which saw some huge surprises.

Five heavyweights were given the shocks of their lives last when they were defeated in their quest to become regional chairmen of the party in their respective regions.

They are the former Transport Minister, Ms. Aku Dzifa Attivor, who failed in her bid to lead the NDC in the Volta Region; the incumbent Eastern Regional Chairman, Mr. Bismark Tawiah Boateng, who was also booted out as regional chairman; a former Central Regional Minister, Mr. Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, who was floored in the Central Regional polls and Mr. Joseph Yammin, who was also defeated in the Ashanti Regional delegates elections.

In the Western Region, incumbent Michael Aidoo aka Big Aidoo also lost his position as chairman whereas the Greater Accra Regional Chairman, Mr. Joseph Kobina Ade Coker, retained his position after a closely contested election.

Allotey Jacobs, a former Board Member of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), said he believes in blending both old and new executives to steer the affairs of the party, however, he thinks the party is going about it wrongly. He warns that the party risks losing in 2020.

 He says there are certain people within the old executives whose commitment to the party and organizational skills were commendable and must be supported to contest again.

Allotey Jacobs also cautioned his party members about the strength of their opponents saying “the NPP [New Patriotic Party] must not be taken for a joke and I keep on saying it and I will always say it because our experience in politics gives us the dynamics so if we don’t get the right people to stand up to the NPP, then forget it.”

Meanwhile, he has exempted John Mahama from the leadership that must be changed.

According to him, John Mahama stands tall amongst all the presidential aspirants because all the other aspirants are all his former appointees and “a student cannot be better than his tutor”.

Allotey Jacobs has also described political pundits predicting doom for president Mahama in the general election as making “jaundice analysis.”

He says it would be premature for people to say Mahama will lose because the Ghanaian electorates are becoming critical as the day goes by.