NDC lies exposed – $20million ultra-modern building is indeed owned by NDC
It has now emerged that the controversial ultra-modern building located at Adabraka, which is estimated to cost $20million, is indeed owned by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in spite of the categorical denials from the leadership of the party.
Though NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia has refused to answer probing questions about the facility, the leadership of the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) yesterday produced what has been described in media circles as the most solid evidence to back its claim that the building indeed belongs to the NDC.
This was at a press conference in Accra where the group produced and distributed copies of a special newsletter published by the NDC for its July 2011 congress, which contained the details of the building and other projects being undertaken by the party.
The newsletter, ‘NDC Frontline News’, was distributed to a select number of individuals including NDC MPs, national campaign centre of NDC, NDC national secretariat, office of J.J Rawlings, NDC Council of Elders, TEIN, external branches of NDC, diplomatic missions, NGOs, headquarters of other political parties and libraries and to delegates at its Sunyani congress in July.
Page 2 of the said document, which is dated July 2011, under the headline ‘State of the party’, gave credence to Asiedu Nketia’s statement at the NDC congress.
It said, “Two sites have been acquired for building a befitting national headquarters. One is at Adabraka in Accra which is being developed into a four-storey edifice that will eventually serve regional uses.”
Apart from that, it also indicated that “a 20-acre plot has been acquired and fenced off at Oyibi on the Accra-Dodowa road. This is the site where a headquarters complex will be constructed to house offices, party school, guest houses, conference centres and all other facilities required to run a modern political party like the NDC.”
Producers of the newsletter, which was edited by one Kwasi Sarpong, gave a graphic picture of what the new NDC headquarters would look like when completed and went a step further to place a picture of the controversial building at Adabraka on the front page, captioned ‘new headquarters building.’
In spite of the feigning of ignorance by NDC gurus of the existence of such a building, Kwasi Sarpong yesterday confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that he was indeed the one who instructed one of his reporters to take the shot of the building for the purpose, saying, “I was made to put it in it.”
“These are projects that…belong to the NDC so I was made to put this in the newsletter to please the party supporters that we are doing this and that,” he noted.
Asked whether he knew the building in question belonged to the NDC party, he stated categorically, “but nobody denies that this is not the building that I sent the photographer to snap…at Adabraka.”
He said he was surprised that the party leaders were running away from their own project, insisting that all the leaders were aware that the NDC had acquired a property at Adabraka.
But spokesman for AFAG, Henry Asante said, “The NDC failed in all attempts to discover and recover their succinct and coherent voice mastered in their propaganda gimmicks.”
This, according to him, was evident in the fact that “up until now, nobody has been unable to respond to basic PR tenet of an official release.”
“It is again insightful to note that almost all the functional executives of the NDC have yet still not allayed the fears of AFAG and Ghanaians as to the ownership of the property and the source of funding especially at this time that the corruption perception index has broken the heart of Government according to the Deputy Information Minister, Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa,” he noted.
In all these developments, AFAG insisted that one thing that was still not clear to them and Ghanaians was the position of the ruling NDC in relation to ownership, sources of fund for the ultra-modern edifice and whether there was any connection between the Government and the construction of the edifice.
In spite of that, spokesman for the group said they wanted Ghanaians to be aware of what he described as “the uncaring and wicked government whose interest is to splash money in the construction of an ultra-modern edifice which personifies profligacy and ostentation at the highest level, with a whopping sum of ¢300billion at a time that the 2009 Budget is still yawning for money in the construction of fishing harbours in James Town and Elmina, landing site construction in Winneba, Mumford, Senya Breku, Gomoa Fetteh, and Moree in the Central Region, as well as Keta in the Volta Region.”
Source Daily Guide Ghana
Category: Politics
