By King Amoah, Our Editor-in-Chief
In an unexpected turn of events, the narrative surrounding the current administration’s anti corruption drive has taken an unbelievable twist.
While the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been consistently decring the arrest and prosecution of former government appointees as “political witch hunting, a growing faction of the party’s grassroots supporters in the Ashanti Region have publicly distanced themselves from this stance.
In a series of cl interviews a section of outspoken NPP supporters and activists indicated their full support for President John Dramani Mahama’s government and calli for the retrieval of state funds allegedly misappropriated during the Akufo Addo administration.
Speaking from Kumawu a known NPP activist Richard Opoku challenged his party’s leadership to stop their criticism of the government.
The NPP leadership needs to stop criticizing Mahama for these arrests, Opoku stated.
Accountability is mandatory for any government that inherits power and that If you have nothing to hide why fdo you fear an invitation from the authorities?
Opoku’s sentiments was echoed in Konongo by Madam Ama Bediako a prominent female activist within the party.
She dismissed the “witch hunting” narrative as a fallacy designed to evade justice.
As an NPP member, I must ask: if you have clean hands, why are you afraid of the law she posed.
The sentiment on the ground suggests that many party stalwarts are weary of the defensive posture adopted by their national executives.
Emmanuel Yeboah, a 50 year old activist from Manso Nkwanta known as ‘Guy Osono’, labeled the current wave of NPP protestations as hypocritical.
He pointed to the history of the party’s own conduct while in power citing the long running legal battles against the late former COCOBOD boss, Dr. Stephen Opuni whom Akufo Addo’s administration pursued for years without conviction.
The noise making and demonstrations are merely to score cheap political points and public sympathy,Yeboah remarked
For many in the Ashanti Region, the current economic crisis is not an abstract concept but a direct consequence of the alleged mismanagement under the previous regime of the New Patriotic Party under Akuffo Addo.
Prince Okyem a popular NPP stalwart in Ashanti Bekwai, questioned the legitimacy of his party’s complaints against the government.
He specifically cited alleged scandals within the National Service Scheme, the Ghana Buffer Stock Company and the petroleum sector as a glaring examples of the rot that led to the NPP’s defeat.
It was through this unchecked corruptions and Akufo Addo’s inability to control it that caused the party’s defeat in the 2024 elections, Okyem noted.
He encouraged President Mahama to intensify the probes insisting that anyone who served in the previous administration must be held accountable.
This sentiment was reinforced by Madam Victoria Okra a trader in Kuntanase who linked the current economic hardships directly to the mismanagement of the past eight years.
She argued that the NPP has no moral standing to label legitimate state investigations as “witch hunting” when the economic evidence of mismanagement is felt in every market stall.
These revelations suggest that the NPP is facing a significant internal rift.
While the national leadership maintains a narrative of political persecution, the voices from the party’s heartland in Ashanti region indicate a deep seated frustration with the corruption that arguably led to the defeat of the party.
