TV star, Grace Omaboe, popularly called Maame Dokono, has defended her defection to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and stated categorically that she is not a “stomach politician”. Madam Omaboe, the 2000 National Democratic Congress parliamentary candidate for Birim North in the Eastern Region, has for the past four years been flirting with the NPP. The actress, now a card-bearing member of the NPP, on Sunday mounted a platform at the party’s rally in Takoradi to solicit votes for them, leading to verbal condemnations from particularly NDC quarters. Her accusers say she is an opportunist and could be seeking to partner another party in power if the NPP were to leave office. Grace Omaboe told Asempa FM in Accra on Wednesday that she is a self-made person, and stated emphatically that the NPP has not wooed her with money and neither did she enjoy any personal perks from the NDC. She said she is a well educated and successful woman with well educated children. “I have houses - including storey buildings - schools, I have been able to affect the lives of many children and women, I have an orphanage with over 100 children, which I run on my own without support from the government.” Maame Dokono alleged that she left the NDC due to intimidation and frustrations that were orchestrated by the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, a charge the former First Lady has denied through her spokespersons. She also felt appalled about the behaviour of the leadership of NDC who did nothing to save her from the alleged agony; and when they even realised it “they don’t know how to say sorry”. “I left the party because of beatings, insults and humiliation … considering what I have done for them, I felt hurt.” All these, she said, facilitated her action and not because she is an opportunist aiming to get something from the NPP. The National Organizer of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who joined in the discussion via phone, felt Madam Omaboe was being economical with the truth. Maame Dokono however was not prepared to listen to his intervention on the grounds that she had suffered too much abuse at the hands of people in the NDC, accusing Ofosu Ampofo himself of being part of a radio discussion panel that had insulted her on another radio station earlier in the day. Mr. Ofosu Ampofo however managed to squeeze in a rebuttal that Madam Dokono ever subjected to any abuse and challenged her to provide any proof of her claims. Story by Isaac Essel