The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, a.k.a. General Mosquito, has stated that, he would rather go to cells in the interest of his party than withdraw the statement he made implicating all seventeen flag bearer aspirants of the NPP as, "a group of thieves who had met to elect a chief thief." "I will not withdraw that statement; I will rather go to cells so the party can use it as our campaign message in 2008," he vowed. According to him, he does not have any fear for the courts, which some representatives of the aspirants threatened to take him, because he has enough facts to back his statement. He observed that, the NPP having recognized the fact that NDC will use that as one of its campaign messages against it in 2008, wanted to put pressure on him so that he withdraws it to prevent the party from dwelling on it. Speaking at the weekend, during the annual get-together of the Brong Ahafo Regional Branch of the NDC, popularly dubbed "Family Meeting," in Sunyani, he said there is no way the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, could be compared with his party's flag bearer, Evans John Atta-Mills, because Akufo-Addo lacks the credible track record to match Prof Mills in the 2008 general election. According to General Mosquito, having served as the vice president of the country for several years under the NDC government, the law professor is better placed to lead the country in 2008. Present at the gathering were, Twumasi Appiah, NDC Member of Parliament for Sene, Stephen Kunsu, MP, Kintampo North, Yaw Effah Barfi, Kintampo South, Asum-Ahensah, Jaman South, some NDC former District Chief Executives (DCEs) in the region, and MPs, as well as the region's party constituency executives. Conspicuously missing was the Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman, John Owusu Agyeman due to ill-health. The General Secretary said Professor Mills' public service record as boss of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and his academic credentials are perfect as compared to his opponent whose tenure as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, failed to fight corruption. According to him, Akuffo-Addo performed poorly because he failed to finalize talks with the Gambian president, Yahaya Jameh, on the murder of 44 Ghanaians, when he was the Foreign Affairs Minister. General Mosquito said, it was during his tenure as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, that the regent of Dagbon, Yaa-Na, was beheaded, and over forty of his subjects murdered in cold blood as well as the murder of Issah Mobilah. As far as the General Secretary is concerned, the NPP flag bearer, Akufo-Addo's academic credentials as a lawyer, is only a way to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians as being a lawyer of great repute "but as a matter of fact, he is not". Buttressing his point, he stressed that; "I was on a panel of members who vetted him, before he could become a minister of state in the Kufour administration. I have his Curriculum Vitae (CV) on my file and he has not got any Bachelor of Laws (LLB, LLM) or Dr. of Jurisprudence as a lawyer." Reacting to newspaper publications that sought to suggest that the NDC was panicking because of the personality and the credentials of Akufo-Addo, the NDC fire brand pointed out that, even the NPP top brass are not happy with their flag bearer because they appreciate the fact that, he is no match for Atta Mills. He urged constituency execu­tives of the party to replicate the house- to-house campaign strategy of their flag bearer in their various constituencies since that could yield enough votes for the party. Source: The Heritage