NDC executive gives Mills ultimatum

President Mills         The Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kwaku Boahen, has asked President Mills to choose between the youth in the region and the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ahafo Ano South, Thomas Kwakwa. “I am asking President Mills to choose between Mr. Kwakwa and the party's youth in the Ashanti region,” the regional youth organizer stated on several radio stations in Kumasi on Monday. Sounding furious, Mr. Boahen noted that he does not understand why President Mills has blatantly refused to sack the DCE in spite of a series of agitations from the party's youth in the district. “We have realized that President Mills is not ready to listen to the concerns of the youth, so as the regional youth organizer, I am asking President Mills to choose between us and Mr. Kwakwa,” he stated. According to him, the actions and inactions of the DCE were destroying the party's foundation in the district and the earlier President Mills dismissed him, the better. In recent times, Mr. Kwakwa has come under immense pressure, as some NDC youth in the district have vowed to do everything possible to ensure his exit from the government. According to the agitated youth, the DCE was not championing the cause of the party because he was not a dyed-in-the-wool member of the party, but instead a committed member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Last Friday, whilst the DCE was in Accra attending a performance review workshop, the youth, led by one Abdul Rahman, the constituency youth organizer and Abubakar Saddick, constituency deputy propaganda secretary, held a demonstration against him in the district capital. In the said demonstration, things got to a head when the irate youth stormed the district assembly in the morning and braced the DCE's office with wood logs in a bid to prevent him from working. Having violated the law with their actions, the district police command arrested Rahman and Saddick and quickly arraigned them before court, after which they were remanded to reappear today, August 3, 2010. The regional youth organizer accused the DCE of masterminding the arrest and subsequent incarceration of the constituency organizer and the constituency deputy propaganda secretary. Mr. Boahen said he could not fathom why the DCE should instigate the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of the two constituency executives for organizing a demonstration against him. “Do you think that if the DCE was a true NDC member, he would have ordered the arrest and consequent incarceration of the two constituency executives?” he wondered. He stated, “How many times did we hear, during the era of the NPP, that a DCE ordered the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of party members, not to talk of constituency executives?” Mr. Boahen said he was particularly worried about the development because if the trend should go on unchecked, the party was going to have a difficult time in the 2012 elections. “Do you think that if this thing should continue, Rahman and Saddick will go to the villages to campaign for the party in the 2012 elections?” the regional youth organizer asked rhetorically. He said as the youth organizer of the party in the region, he will make sure that the DCE and others like him were removed from office to ensure that the youth remain committed to the activities of the party. Meanwhile, the regional chairman of the party, Yaw Obimpeh, has promised to do everything possible within his power to ensure that Rahman and Saddick were freed. Source: Daily Guide/Ghana