Benyiwa-Doe Fingered In Oguaa Afahye Commotion

Information reaching Daily Guide suggests that Central Regional Minister Ama Benyiwa Doe was behind the ploy to embarrass the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the Ogua Fetu Afehye in Cape Coast over the weekend.

Sources close to the Omanhene have confided in DAILY GUIDE that she was the one who advised Presidential Staffer Nii Lantey Vanderpuye to go and stop Nana Addo and his entourage from going to greet the chiefs and people on the dais at the durbar grounds.

Even before Saturday’s event, Nana Addo was said to have sent shockwaves to the NDC in the region when he walked through some principle streets, markets and bus stations to thank polling stations executives who elected him to lead the party in the next elections.

Though Madam Benyiwa-Doe, who used to be the National Democratic Congress’s National Women’s Organiser, has vehemently denied the claim, it is seen as a pay back to the NPP for the supposed maltreatment of then candidate Mills when he attempted to go and greet President John Agyekum Kufuor at one of such occasions in the 2007 at the same place – a claim some leading members of the NPP have denied.

Benyiwa Doe told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that she could not have done any such thing because that was beyond her control, considering the fact that the National Security does not take instructions from any Regional Minister.

“Are they saying that Ato Arthur gave Kufuor’s security instructions to beat Atta Mills’ bodyguards,” she asked rhetorically, saying “region and national, how can I have control over them?”

Instead of riding in his car to the durbar grounds, Nana Addo was said to have decided to walk from the St. Mary’s Senior High School area to the durbar grounds, thereby attracting a huge following who were cheering him on, with some laying their cloths on the floor for him to walk on.

This seemed to have provoked the NDC into stopping him and his entourage from going to greet Osabarima Kwesi Atta and his people. The source believes that they carried out this intention with the aim of creating a negative impression in the minds of Ghanaians as though the chiefs and people of the area have either shunned or rejected the Nana Addo.

“They knew very well that if they did not stop Nana Addo from going to greet the chief and his people in public, Osabarima and his elders, he would have acknowledged his presence in his speech. That is why they decided to prevent him to create an impression of an indirect snubbing,” said the source.

Meanwhile, Daily Guide has gathered credible information to the effect that Omanhene sent a delegation to Accra to explain why he could not acknowledge Nana Addo’s presence since he was said to have gotten wind of it only about five minutes to the end of the entire programme, a time he could not have introduced Nana to the durbar.

Nana Addo was subsequently said to have written to Osabarima and his people, indicating that he was not the least perturbed at the spins being put on the whole incident since he has confidence in the Central region. He stated that he bore the Central Region no grudge, thereby denying the claim that he will ‘show’ them when he becomes president.

Barely a week before President Mills proceeded on his short-lived leave and traveled to the States, the chiefs and people in the Central region wrote to him, reminding him of the numerous promises he made to them when he asked them to vote for him to become President.

This recent development is said to have frightened the NDC in the region since it is widely believed that the people of the regional voted for Mills for the mere claim that ‘adze wo fie oye’. But almost two years after he assumed the reins of governance, there is nothing to show for Mills’ promises.