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Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. says he is stumped at the way the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is struggling to provide an answer to a simple question on the alleged acquisition of a $20 million party Headquarters saying the contradictory responses shows how weak sometimes the NDCs communication is.
The brouhaha over the erection of a multimillion dollar edifice at Adabraka, a suburb of Accra which is alleged to be the new party headquarters of the NDC, is not likely to die soon following some diametrically opposed answers provided by some big guns in the party.
AFAG says information it has obtained indicates the NDC is putting up its new edifice in Adabraka at a cost of 20 million dollars.
National Organiser of the NDC, Yaw Boateng Gyan says he is only aware of a project of such nature at Oyarifa on the Aburi road. He shared this piece of information with Kwami Sefa Kayi on PeaceFM�s �Kokrooko on Tuesday, December 6th.
Kofi Adams, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, on that same day told Kwame Nkrumah �Tikese� on OkayFM that he only knows of a new office structure to be sited at Oyibi near Dodowa. He however stressed that he is not part of the technical committee in charge of the project and therefore has no idea about an Adabraka office complex.
Earlier on Monday, December 5th, the NDC Deputy National Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, openly disclosed on �The Platform�, a socio-political programme on Peacefm (which airs on Mondays and Wednesdays between 8:20 � 10:00pm and hosted by (TK) Tweneboah Koduah) that the said building belongs to the NDC. He, however, disputed the figure being bandied about by AFAG.
Meanwhile, the NDCs Deputy National Organizer, Joshua Akamba, is also on record to have conceded on X-FM that the office belonged to the NDC, but claims it was built with the party�s own funds.
Contributing to discussions on PeaceFM�s �Kokrooko� Morning Show, Mr. Pratt raised concerns about the inconsistencies in the answers provided by the NDC�s communication team. To him, such discrepancies are worrying, adding that �it is important for the NDCs communication team to make sense in some of the things they say�.
He noted that even though it could be possible that the allegations by AFAG concerning the multimillion dollar edifice may be false; the kind of conflicting response only raises more questions than answers and may lend credence to the allegations.
�There are a lot of issues regarding the NDC, it is important that sometimes they say things that make sense�a huge allegation is placed on the party and interestingly everybody you talk to gives a different answer and a conflicting explanation; what is happening in the NDC? There is a saying that �asem pa ye tia� - to wit- truth is brief or truth in argument need not belabored� It is possible that what AFAG is saying is not true but because none of them is addressing the issue directly, it might lend credence to the allegations,� he posited.
He surmised that it is either some members of the NDC leadership do not want to speak the truth about the new project or they really have no idea.
��but it will be surprising if the party leadership does not know about issues within their party. Constructing a new party headquarters is not a small project�therefore one million dollars (assuming it is so) cannot be withdrawn from coffers without the knowledge of leading members of the NDC�the NDC communication is sometimes deficient that you wonder what is wrong with them�A short while ago Kofi Adams just said this is their third year in office; third year in office and yet they are finding it difficult to grasp simple basic communication rules?.�I�m saddened�,� he said.
The Senior Journalist was also critical of way some resource persons and government appointees tend to enthusiastically respond to queries from the media even when they are ill-prepared or just when they had woken up from bed.
�Massa, when you are in a political party or any other organization, and an incident such as this crop up, you appoint somebody to be the spokesperson, somebody who knows the facts. Why is everybody talking? That is part of the problem. Why is the Chairman of the sub-committee on Housing, not being asked to speak to the matter since he is well-abreast with the issue at stake so that this issue is limited only to the members of the committee responsible for the head office project? But now everyone is talking. Why? Is that not a communication problem? It is a major communication problem,� he averred.
He, however, posited that the fact that some leading members of the NDC have given conflicting responses does not necessarily make the claims of AFAG credible, adding that �it needs further examination�.
�The inconsistencies do not necessarily, logically, do not necessarily make AFAG's claim true�In summary;�as I sit here right now, I cannot say AFAG�s allegations are true or false. I cannot say so, it needs further examination� It seems to me AFAG has the right to do what it has embarked on, but what we need to ask ourselves is that, perchance what they have presented, is it the whole truth or not. Those are the critical questions. Because so far, for me I see no evidence�taking shots (of a building) does not show ownership,� Kwesi Pratt stated.
Source: Beatrice Adepa Frempong/Peacefmonline.com
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