Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Otokunor has distanced the party from a said forum held by some of its top cadres.

The group - NDC Democratic Platform Initiative which constitutes some bigwigs including Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, former Vice-Chair Dan Abodakpi and Ebi Bright on Saturday held a forum in Tema to assess the party’s performance in the 2020 general elections, strengthen its structures and strategise on the reorganisation for victory in the next presidential and parliamentary polls.

But speaking to the matter with Joy FM, Mr Otokunor revealed that the party's executives were not informed of the event and as such did not sanction the said forum dubbed "Securing The NDC’s Future" that has sparked controversy.

"I don't think it was an NDC forum. I don't think they were doing anything in the interest or under the sanctions of the NDC leadership. I am speaking to you as the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC and I am telling you that we did not know about any forum. We didn't sanction any such forum,"he told Emefa Apawu on Midday.

According to Mr Otokunor, the NDC leadership had organised a three-day retreat which was attended by former President John Mahama in Ho, thus would find no reason to hold another event.

"What we did was a retreat which you have rightly reported on we did from last Friday till Sunday. Obviously, there would not be any way we would hold such programmes within that period," he said.

During the forum which has been described as unauthorised by Mr Otokunor, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor cautioned the party against holding conversations around the selection of a flagbearer for Election 2024 but rather invest its time in reorganising the party itself.

"When you start by closing any forms of conversation and let it look like the real problem for NDC today is a conversation about succession and flagbearship, you are committing a serious political blunder because by the time you get that successor or that individual in place; he is going to be riding a weak and tired and sick horse,” he noted.

For the Deputy General Secretary, views and suggestions coming from Dr Kumbuor, Dan Abodakpi regarding actions to be taken by the NDC are expected to pass through the appropriate and accepted channel.

"If they think that they value their views very much and they want it to be considered, they know the appropriate forum to send their views."

Meanwhile, the former Eastern Regional Minister, Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere who was present at the Tema forum told Evans Mensah on Top Story that a letter regarding the forum was written to the NDC Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo inviting the party to the event.

"Let me correct one point which our Deputy General Secretary said. He said that the party was not aware. Indeed we wrote to the party and we believe that they received the letter. So it will be difficult for us to think or believe that the party says that they were not aware of what we were going to do. We addressed it to the Chairman of the party," he said.

He revealed that despite the fact that the group received no confirmation on the letter, "we knew that the letter had gone to the office and it has been received."

Also, Antwi-Boasiako pointed out that the forum held on Saturday would have been rescheduled if the party leadership had informed them of the three-day retreat held in Ho of the Volta Region.

"No, we were not aware. We were told afterwards that that was the situation…When we sent the letter if they called us that ' no, we are going to do this. You are even invited to observe'. We would have taken note of that and accordingly readjust our programs. But nothing was done, no acknowledgement. We were just ignored," he added.