POLITICS:NDEBUGRE’S BIRTHPLACE MIGHT NOT VOTE FOR NPP IN 2012

NDEBUGRE’S BIRTHPLACE MIGHT NOT VOTE FOR NPP IN 2012

Story by Edward Adeti, Timonde, Upper East, Ghana

 One of Ghana’s acclaimed lawyers and sharp-edged politicians, Mr. John Akparibo Ndebugre, may have shocked many Ghanaians by losing a lowest-level district election in his own birthplace of Timonde, nevertheless his kinspersons have resolved upon proving to the world in 2012 that their defeated proud son is still worth a lump of the overall talisman the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) would need in the Zebilla constituency in next year’s general elections.

In their resolution, which brews up following an alleged attempt by the NPP’s 2012 parliamentary candidate for Zebilla, Mr. Frank Fuseini, and his group to drag Mr. Ndebugre’s reputation in the mud, they have specified that voting for Mr. Fuseini next year will depend on the directive of Mr. Ndebugre, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Zebilla.

They claim Mr. Fuseini is hiding behind a pro-NPP group banner “Strategic Team towards Victory of the Flagbearer and the Parliamentary Candidate of the NPP for the 2012 Elections” to wage a mudslinging crusade against Mr. Ndebugre’s integrity.

A jointly endorsed statement from the sub-divisional chiefs, the queen mother, elders, opinion leaders, religious figures as well as youths and some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Timonde, which was presented at a press conference in the Zebilla Constituency, accused Mr. Fuseini and his group of circulating reports that Mr. Ndebugre lost the district-level election this year partly because his own immediate community members “had passed a vote of no confidence against him”.

According to the statement, which was read out by Spokesperson Mr. Atiah John Asandago, the Fuseini-led group also smeared Mr. Ndebugre with a lie that he was politically flirting with Mr. Cletus Avoka, current National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Zebilla. Reacting to the accusations, the statement explained that there was apathy during the district-level elections because “we thought he was too advanced for such a position and we did not understand his motive for contesting that election at the time.” 

“We are solidly behind Hon. Ndebugre in any campaign he is embarking on now and also wish to say that we have learnt our lessons and will henceforth resist any malicious machinations against our son, Hon. Ndebugre,” it stressed.

Whilst pointing out that Mr. Ndebugre was also defeated because Mr. Fuseini together with his cohorts and the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bawku West, Mr. Anaba Adam Imoro, purportedly teamed up monetary, material and vehicular resources to influence the electorate, the statement advised that the district-level election should not be used as a yardstick to determine the credibility of “our beloved son” in any general elections.

The statement idolised Mr. Ndebugre as “a paragon of virtue, strength of character, sole mentor and linchpin of Timonde” and added that the people of the community would ensure that Mr. Ndebugre “harvest greater votes for the NPP Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo-Danquah Akufo Addo in the Timonde Electoral Area come December 7, 2012.”

Meanwhile, members of the Zebilla Constituency Branch of the “Nana for President 2012” (NAFOP) are reiterating their calls on regional and national executives of the NPP to verify the qualification of Mr. Frank Fuseini, NPP’s 2012 parliamentary candidate for Zebilla. 

In a statement presented at Zebilla by the group’s Spokesperson, Mr. Cletus Ayariga, the NAFOP members claim that Mr. Fuseini is only eleven months old in the NPP “whose Constitution in Article 11 Clauses 4a and 5 states that parliamentary aspirants must be at least 2 years old in the party.”

Admitting a foreseeable tough opposition particularly from the NDC in next year’s parliamentary election at Zebilla, the group confessed their fears ahead of the most likely outcome even as the questionable qualification of Mr. Fuseini reportedly is infusing supposed campaign team members with doubts and apathy. Worse, the statement stressed that situation is most likely to affect the fortune of the Presidential Candidate of the NPP, too, in the constituency.    

“Since petitions were written against him and those petitions were not properly investigated before being declared the candidate, he was not popularly acclaimed. We, therefore, restate our position here loud and clear that we cannot and will not support Fuseini’s candidature unless and until the issue of lack of qualification is resolved,” the statement stressed.

The NAFOP members also condemned what they called ongoing verbal attacks on Mr. John Ndebugre, former MP for Zebilla, by a group calling itself ‘Strategic Team towards Victory of the Flagbearer and the Parliamentary Candidate of the NPP for the 2012 Elections’. They described the team as an unrecognised group which, contrary to its own portrayal as a section of the NPP’s youth wing at Zebilla, rather had been going round passing all sorts of disagreeable and incorrect comments about Mr. Ndebugre.

The statement also opened fire on one Mr. Raymond Atewini Ayamba, an alleged leading signatory to the verbal onslaught on Mr. Ndebugre. Mr. Ayamba is said to have recently played a big role in what NAFOP described as “a mixture of downright concocted stories interspersed with plain insults” against the former MP. 


He purportedly appended his signature to a document in which Mr. Ndebugre himself is said to have been illustrated as a political prostitute among other unprintable names. It described Mr. Atewini as a dangerous rumourmonger and exposed his mother, Mrs. Victoria Ayamba, as a two-faced NPP Zebilla Constituency Women’s Organiser who reportedly had been supporting the NDC against the NPP in exchange for catering contracts under the Ghana School Feeding Programme.

“The attack on Hon. Ndebugre’s personality is slanderous...We urge him to employ all legal means available to him to restore his image and reputation,” the statement pressed.