Appiah stadium was arrested after suggesting in a recent audio that went viral, that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo smokes marijuana [wee].

[contextly_sidebar id=”47ciwXiJlLRPg5S1yNmUAf7EYlUt0oev”]The former Minister of state in charge of Private Public Partnership under John Dramani Mahama’s presidency in an interview on Eyewitness News, said “If the president is not aware of the arrest, he should, right now order the release of this gentleman. It is not acceptable,’’ he said

He further said if the police acted on their own accord, the president must come out publicly and disassociate himself, alleging that the arrest was politically motivated.

“I think that there is something political about it, and that is the reason why I think that it shouldn’t go far. This matter shouldn’t proceed beyond today [Tuesday]. The President should come out and ensure that he dissociates himself from this event and go ahead to order a release. If he wants, he can take his own action. He is the one insulted, he is the one who can take the matter to court, he is the one who can seek justice. And if it bothers on criminality then at one point he can wash his hands off and then the law can take its course. I think Appiah Stadium is being unfairly and unjustly being incarcerated.”

“If they [Police] are overzealous and they are doing it in the name of the president, he should come out and say it’s not me [Akufo-Addo],” Rashid Pelpuo added.

He argued that many people made similar defamatory comments against former presidents Atta-Mills and Mahama, yet they were not treated the way Appiah stadium is being treated by the police.

Meanwhile, the police have said they did no wrong in arresting Appiah stadium. The Director of Public Affairs of the Police Service, David Eklu, said they wanted him to substantiate his claims.

Akufo-Addo will not press charges against Appiah Stadium – Hamid

President Akufo-Addo has said he is not interested in pressing charges against Appiah Stadium.

The Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid, in a release copied to citifmonline.com, indicated that Akufo-Addo has informed the Police Administration of his position on the matter.

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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The committee among other things recommended that some structural changes should be adopted by the party to ensure its victory in the 2020 elections.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Q6ixFYcRKKrcZvVBH4XiEg9t8qtIeD2K”]According to a senior member of the NDC, Sam P. Yalley, the party needs to re-organise its structures to make it a formidable force for the next general elections.

“We lost the elections at the polling stations and at the branches that is why we are talking about the constitution and reorganizing our branches.We also should look at the issue of acrimonious primaries and after the primaries, we did not institute a very good re-conciliatory system to put the candidates together. We need to accept them and move ahead. If everything was right, we could have won,” he said.

He is however advocating for the party headquarters to be made the party’s coalition centre during elections to facilitate information flow and intelligence.

“Some of us are of the view that no activity should take place outside the party headquarters because during the elections, many people have problems that they have to rush to the party headquarters to explain, but when they go there, nobody is there and everyone is at a coalition centre elsewhere. We are advocating that in the next election, the party headquarters should be the location for all activities,” he said.

The 13-member committee set up by the NDC to probe its defeat in the 2016 election, presented its findings to the National Executive Council (NEC) on Monday.

As part of its recommendations, the committee asked the NDC to take a holistic look at its biometric electoral register.

The 55-paged report, titled, ‘listening to the grassroot’, said the NDC must take urgent steps to restore the integrity of the register.

Speaking at the presentation of the report, the Chairman of the Committee, Prof. Kwesi Botchwey, expressed hope that the recommendations will help capture power for the NDC in the next elections in 2020.

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By: Franklin Badu Jnr./citifmonline.com/Ghana

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John Mahama had previously met with ministers in his administration where he told them to hold their shoulders high because they delivered to the best of their ability in spite of the fact that they lost the 2016 elections.

“In the monumental achievements that we chalked, I believe that you must hold your heads high because that government did a lot for this country, and I believe that posterity will be the judge eventually. We did a lot to improve the infrastructure of the country, and often infrastructure is a thing people take for granted. It is possible to be in the opposition and criticize.

“We should not feel depressed or feel ashamed about our service in government. It was outstanding. We must continue to defend the legacy of that government,” John Mahama said.

The former Foreign Affairs Minister, Hanna Tetteh and former Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah were among those present at the meeting with the former envoys.

Spokesperson for the former envoys, Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley, congratulated President Mahama for his dedicated service to Ghana, noting that he served with honour and distinction.
The group indicated that as envoys, they are proud of their service, which contributed to the significant improvement to Ghana’s image.

“Our presence in those countries significantly improved Ghana’s international relations and image”, Ambassador Yankey stated. He also spoke about the extent of Diaspora engagement that was pursued during their tenure, which was one of the mandates given them in addition to trade and investment promotion.

Former President Mahama welcomed the envoys back home, thanked them for their contributions to the development of the country and encouraged them to continue in whatever way they can towards the growth of the country.

On the political front, President Mahama said “we have to come to terms with the loss and it is not how many times you fall but how early you get up to run.”

“This is not the time for blame”, he stated, asking all to remain united.

Speaking about the emerging leadership issues, President Mahama said, this is not a priority now since the dynamics of the times will allow the leadership to emerge.

Others include former Ambassador to countries; Lesotho, Mauritius, Seychelles and Swaziland, Prof. Kwesi Ahwoi and Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Haruna Attah, former ambassador to Namibia.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to them, the current constituency executives have failed the party and are largely to blame for the poor performance of the party in the last general elections in December.

Addressing a press conference in Odumase, the Spokesperson for the group, David Denyo, noted that the constituency executives are behind the party’s woeful performance in the just ended general elections, and therefore must be suspended by their regional and national executives.

Comparing the performance of the current constituency executives to the previous leaders, the group said “in the history of Lower Manya, under no circumstance has the NDC won an election with a margin less than a thousand, except for this current administration which won the last elections by a margin of 327. This is unfortunate because we almost lost the elections.”

The group accused the constituency executives of taking several wrong decisions such as using untrained polling station agents and busing party members to another constituency to cast their ballot, rather than their home constituency which is the Lower Manya constituency.

“They bused some members of the party outside the constituency to another constituency to vote. They also placed untrained party agents at some polling stations, and also used one polling station agent at some polling stations instead of two. The executives also refused to pay some of the polling station agents, and all these and more worked against our party in the last elections.”

Mr. Denyo noted that, in order to restore the glory of the constituency, it is important that the current crop of leadership are removed to ensure the party is reorganized in the constituency since the party stands the chance of losing the seat in 2020 if care is not taken.

“In the last elections, the constituency won by a margin of 327 as against the 2012 margin of 8,179. This drop in margin is unprecedented, and we shall not sit down and allow this constituency to suffer the fate of becoming an orphan; so we are calling on the regional and national executives to as a matter of urgency suspend the current leadership within 48 hours or face our wrath.”

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By: Elvis Washington/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to Kofi Adams, a close associate of the Rawlings family, the party is yet to carry out an exercise to identify the real reasons for its loss in the December polls, and that it will be unfair to accuse the former President of being responsible.

[contextly_sidebar id=”vTdW0Mbc7xMfDr2vmjjmUwr1fcEkbqPx”]“We went into the elections with the hope and desire to win. We did not win the elections. Leadership would have to take the responsibility for our inability to win the elections. Let us blame nobody, especially our founder.”

“Those of us in active leadership at the national, regional and at all levels, should take responsibility for what has happened and let us focus for the next agenda which is making sure that once we hold the government to its promise and also make sure that no matter what we get back to power to continue the great job that the country deserves,” he said.

The NDC’s Greater Accra Regional Organiser, Anthony Nukpenu, in a Citi News interview, accused Mr. Rawlings of contributing to the defeat of the party by constantly labeling the Mahama government as corrupt, an allegation he said the NPP used against them.

But according to Mr. Kofi Adams, “Nobody has done any research to show why we lost, and until we have done so, the blame game must cease, and our former President and founding father must be allowed to have his peace while we work around a strategy to bring everything on board.”

Some political analysts have attributed the governing NDC’s loss in the elections to the recurring corruption scandals under the Mahama-led administration, as well as the arrogance posture of many of the government’s appointees.

The NPP won the December presidential polls with 53.85% of the total valid votes cast, against the NDC’s 44.40%, the worst defeat to have been recorded by a sitting President who was seeking a second term in office.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

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A former member of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Evans Gadeto Dzikunu is protesting the appointment of Mr Joseph Flagbo as the new retuning officer of the Electoral Commission in the area.

According to him, the new appointment is unnecessary as three other persons had already been appointed to serve as returning and deputy retuning officers.

[contextly_sidebar id=”YzoV6HIo9unO4F6SMAcLSbmSebt40nlq”]He contended that due process was not followed as the new appointee had been disqualified early on.

Evans Dzikunu who is currently aspiring for the parliamentary seat of the constituency as an independent candidate says he has petitioned the Electoral Commissioner, Charlotte Osei to look into the matter.

“I am asking the EC chairperson to conduct thorough investigations into circumstances surrounding the purported appointment of Joseph Flagbo for Akatsi South constituency because already, 3 people have been appointed as the returning and deputy returning officers respectively and they swore an oath and have assumed duty so where from Flagbo again,” he quizzed.

Evans Dzikunu told Citi News “why should the officers be four? For all the constituencies in the Volta Region, there is none that you will find four officers. If you look at the circumstances surrounding his appointment and the number being four, don’t you think there is something fishy about this? We are saying that we don’t want him to be there.”

He added that he had lost confidence in the new appointee and is currently waiting for explanations from the Electoral Commission to confirm that he was duly appointed and in accordance with the electoral laws.

He said he was prepared to lead a demonstration of the people in the area against the Electoral Commission is nothing is done to ensure the due processes are followed.

He also served notice that he would press further if the Electoral Commission’s report after its investigations is unsatisfactory.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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