The Ashanti Region branch of the oppositionNational Democratic Congress (NDC) has warned persons behind the distribution of items to some constituencies in the name of the Ahotor Project “without recourse/express approval of the Ashanti Regional Executive Committee”.
The Project was launched in 2022 by flagbearer hopeful Dr Kwabena Duffuor.
It was aimed at resourcing the party’s branches at the grassroots but has since been met with opposition at the national level with the pretext that its activities do not follow party structures.
“If Dr [Kwabena] Duffuor intends to make this donation to the party a genuine donation, he should be prepared to pass through the proper channels,” then General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who is now National Chairman, cautioned.
It is in the same light that the Ashanti Region Communications Officer of the NDC, Abass Nurudeen, issued a statement on Wednesday, January 4.
“In principle, the Ashanti Regional Executive Committee is not against the provision of any form of logistical support to the party at any level,” he stated.
“However, doing so without channelling same through the appropriate party structures smack of a certain ulterior motive other than a genuine intention to support the party at the grassroot level.”
He cited how former President John Mahama resorted to party structures in 2012, 2016 and 2020 in distributing items such as pick-ups and motorbikes to all the constituencies in the Region.
“It is therefore unfortunate that a senior party functionary who is nursing the ambition to lead the party some day will disregard or undermine the structures of the very party that he seeks to lead.
“We are, by this release, serving notice to the the entire NDC fraternity in the Ashanti Region that the movement of the ‘Ahotor Project Team’ is not sanctioned by the Ashanti Regional Executive Committee and urge constituency executives to re-direct any such group that call to seek audience with them to the Regional Executive Committee.”
