The New Patriotic Party will not jump into disassociating itself from public statements made by party members, especially when the party “is not in the position” to establish the truth or otherwise in the comment. Communications Director of the NPP, Kwaku Kwarteng, said this when he reacted to whether the party can disassociate itself from foot soldiers' comments that spark public anger. He was speaking on Joy FM’s flagship show the Super Morning Show. Mr Kwarteng’s statement comes amid mounting calls on the country’s biggest opposition party to come clean on the matter involving a party activist, Nana Darkwa alleging that former President Jerry John Rawlings torched his own house to ashes. “If the party is always going to listen to statements by its party officers and dissociate itself, we’ll be setting ourselves a task we can’t achieve,” he said. “You are going to have a situation where people are so cautious speaking that they may not even be able to articulate strongly enough the position of party.” The NPP would only distance itself from public comments in bad taste when the party is able to establish the veracity of the statement made. “If the party has a means to establish that that statement is untrue then the party will be happy to come out and say this is what we also think about this statement. But there will be many cases where the party is just not in a position to... establish whether that statement is acceptable,” Mr Kwarteng said. He also believes that in issues of press freedom politicians could “err on the side of excess,” explaining that “if the constitution for instance provides avenue for people who feel aggrieved to go to the civil court and clear their name let us allow those people who feel affected to that.” But veteran journalist and communications expert Dr Niyibi Alabi believes politicians must begin to set limits and control the kind of messages they let out. “Any self-respecting political party holds it a duty to itself and to society to distant itself from gratuitous...allegations that cannot be proven because, at the end of the day, that hits at the very underbelly of their credibility so it doesn’t do them any good,” he said. Dr Alabi said politicians must be responsible and ensure that their comments do not inflame passions. Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana