A leading contender for National Chairman race of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Ayensu Ntim has sent a stern warning to President Nana Akufo-Addo, over alleged interference in the party’s upcoming internal elections.
In a leaked audio, a voice said to be that of Mr Stephen Ntim, suggests to party supporters at a meeting in Koforidua that he [Ntim] has been asked by President Akufo-Addo to step down from the race to allow Alhaji Short to go ahead and win the national chairman position.
In the audio, the voice goes ahead to say it was worrying that after all the sacrifices for the party [in 2014] and when it had become glaring that Ntim was going to win in Tamale, one person got up to pronounce that Fred Oware should be voted for and it went ahead to destroy everything and created an unrecoverable cost for Ntim.
He said he [Ntim] was initially supporting Alan Kyerematen but later followed and supported President Akufo-Addo and so if it is time for him to contest as national chairman, it was surprising that he was being asked to step down for the unknown Alhaji Short who he said has never contested the position in the past, to become the national chairman.
According to him, the proposal was very disheartening since it was the fourth time he [Ntim] was contesting and that he would go ahead and contest, “and I am going to win and I will work with the President [Akufo-Addo] after winning, whether he will work with me or not, I don’t care, I will work with him.”
When I win, I will go to him and say Nana, here is the ‘silver cup’, “I’m coming to work for you, that is what I will do, I’m not going to fight with my president, that is my lifelong political ambition.”
He went ahead to suggest that if care was not taken, if he doesn’t get it, the preferred choice may not also get it and it could turn into something else.
“He [President Akufo-Addo] should back off, I am not going to be an Afoko, I’m going to be another chairman to oversee the winning of 2020, and 2024 irrespective of who will be the presidential candidate, that is my commitment to you, I am not fighting for anybody but fighting for my heart’s desire,” he said on the audio.
