NPP After Campaign Blows $50Million…

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is broke, investigations at the Asylum Down headquarters of the leading opposition party has established. The findings were corroborated by leading party sources which were indeed unanimous in their assessment that the party’s coffers were empty.

Leading members and other die-hard NPP supporters whom the paper spoke to on the issue attributed the party’s dire financial situation to what they described as “misuse of campaign funds” by the party’s presidential candidate in the 2008 general election, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

This is despite the fact that the 2008 campaign of Nana Akufo-Addo succeeded in raising about US$50 million. The concerned group wondered how a party that was able to raise about US$50 million for the 2008 election campaign could be wallowing in such a desperate quest for money.

This money, Today established, was however not channeled into the party’s accounts. Rather, Nana Addo’s campaign channeled the money into accounts controlled by the parallel campaign finance structures he had set up.

Consequently, whereas there was plenty of money thrown around town during the campaign, the party itself was broke and unable to take care of its foot soldiers, Today established. And the paper’s findings were confirmed by some leading party members.

Very credible sources at the party’s Asylum Down office informed Today that at present the party does not even have a single 4×4 Pick-up truck to call its won.

This recently led to an altercation between the newly elected Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and the former General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow.

Our sources disclosed that Jake contacted Nana Ohene Ntow over a Pick-up truck which Jake claims belonged to the party. Ohene Ntow, however, was furious because the said truck belonged to him and could not understand how Jake could claim the vehicle was the party’s property.

Nana Ohene Ntow would not comment on the issue but would prefer we speak first to his party Chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey.

“My brother, please speak to Jake first before I can comment on this issue”. Jake’s mobile phones drew blanks when we tried contacting him. As at press time, he had refused to reply a text message we sent to him on the subject.

About two weeks ago, when the newly elected executive had to travel to newly elected General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, aka Sir John’s family funeral, the party’s leadership had to rent 4×4 vehicles because there was not a single party vehicle available.

Asked to explain how the huge amount of money available to the 2008 campaign could not buy vehicles for the party, one disillusioned source stated: “Look, Nana Addo set up his own campaign structures. He was doing things outside the party structures, so they didn’t put money into our coffers.

…They run the campaign’s finance from Databank and it was controlled by non-party members such as the Okyehene’s younger brother, Nana Poku; Ken Ofori-Atta and others. None of these people were party men and did not understand the true interest of the party.”

This is what “Sir John” had to say on the allegation: “A party like the NPP can never be broke. In fact, the NPP is not broke at all—we have enough funds to organize our presidential primaries and we can boast of a lot of assets.

…Presently at the party’s headquarters we have some 4×4 vehicles that have broken down and are being repaired. I personally drive a Jaguar which broke down a few days ago; so if I decide to take a taxi, does it mean that am broke? Definitely, not so, we are not broke.

Yes I had people accompanying me to my brother’s funeral in Kumasi about two weeks ago. I know for a fact that those who came drove their personal cars and I have no idea if there were others who came there in rented cars or vehicles. For that one I don’t know. You are the one telling me.”

Incidentally, according to our source, “almost 90% of the money raised for the campaign was through the efforts of former President Kufuor to help Nana Akufo-Addo’s quest to succeed him.”

The source continued: “The money ended up at Databank where Nana Addo had set up a parallel campaign finance structure which was managed without answering to anyone.”

Our source further pointed out that “the most powerful members of the parallel finance committee were Nana Poku (a younger brother of the Okyehene), and Ken Ofori-Atta (CEO of Databank).

“Money for the campaign was handled and dished out at Databank and not at the NPP party headquarters”, under the supervision of Nana Poku and Ken Ofori Atta.

The paper gathered that even Lord Commey had to operate from there (Databank) at some point since nothing worthwhile besides meetings got done at the party’s head office.”

Several other people within the top hierarchy of the party, and among the ousted executives, who agreed to talk to this paper under strict conditions of anonymity and were obviously unhappy about the situation poured their venom out thus: “We lost the 2008 campaign because control of the money was not in the hands of the party; even individuals who were not executives of the party had control over how to spend campaign money.

…In the end, several people went from rags to riches with some of them buying houses and expensive cars in the process.

In the end, the group disclosed that Nana Poku bought two houses at the AU Village at Labone for US$450,000 each.

Nana Addo, according to the group, bought his sister, Marigold, a house at Ridge for US$ 400,000, and renovated his father’s house on the Ring Road with another US$400,000.

They further noted that Gabby Otchere-Darko, the former Editor-in-Chief of the defunct Statesman newspaper rented a hotel room at Alisa in Accra at a rate of US$200 a day for six months and further bought a BMW 5 series Station Wagon for 65,000 Euros and currently rents a house for US$ 3,000 a month at Cantonments.

As a member of the Akufo-Addo campaign team, Today sent Mr Otchere-Darko an e-mail to comment on the paper’s findings which were also shared by some leading members of the NPP. The paper had wanted him to talk to all issues raised in today’s publication concerning Nana Akufo-Addo and other members of his campaign team since he was a member of the communication outfit of the team.

It became necessary to elicit Gabby’s response because it was extremely difficult getting Nana Akufo-Addo, Nana Poku and Ken Ofori Atta to comment on our findings.

This was Gabby’s reaction: “I can only answer questions relating to me.

… I did not rent a hotel room for $200 a day at Alisa for 6 months; I did not buy a BMW 5 Series Station Wagon for $65,000 and currently rent a house $3,000 dollars at Cantonments.

I thought the original rumour was that I bought a house in Cantonments. I hope you will do well to speak to the others before you do any story on that.”

Another executive, a former regional chairman pointed out that “because the money was not in the hands of the party, the foot soldiers were not taken good care of. We lost because the party’s structures on the ground were ignored. This is the heart of the matter. Even we the party’s executives were often voiceless on how the campaign was run”.