CRUSADE for Probity and Accountability wants NDC probed

Crusade for Probity and Accountability (CPA), a think tank within the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has called on all national executive members of the party to step aside in order to make way for a neutral body to investigate the causes of the abysmal performance of the party at the just-ended polls.

The group observed that the rank and file of the party had lost trust in the executive for presiding over an election in which the party lost by an unprecedented margin in the country’s history.

At its inaugural press conference held in Accra last Wednesday, the Convener of CPA, Dr Kwesi Djokoto, called for steps to be taken to restructure the party at all levels, in line with the principles of probity, accountability and social justice that served as its foundation stone.

Other key members of the CPA are Lawyer Nii Kpakpo Addo, Lawyer Xavier Sosu, Mr Paul Boateng, Mr Agbesi Nutsu, and Mrs Juliet Rejoice Ahiable.

Sanity

Explaining the position of the group, Dr Djokoto said the only way by which sanity and new energy could be breathed into the NDC to reposition it for future elections was for it to undertake a deep enquiry and assessment to unravel the cause of the party’s defeat.

“The performance of the NDC in the 2016 elections will go down as the most abysmal and dreadful by any major political party in the history of Ghana. The NDC’s candidate dropped by as many as 861,484 votes in 2016, as compared to the 2012 results. Conversely, the votes of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) increased by 467,128 over that of 2012.

“It is quite evident that this year’s campaign was the most resourced, so we believe that clearly, something fundamentally went wrong and that is why the rank and file of the party are demanding probity and accountability from the leaders who took them to a battle that has left them distraught, dejected and devastated,” he added.

Crisis

Touching on why it was important for the national executive to step aside, he explained that the defeat of the party could pass for a crisis situation, adding that in managing that crisis, it was out of place for the very people who caused it to lead the process.

Dr Djokoto observed that even though the CPA was calling for a post-mortem of the electoral defeat, glaring evidence showed that “the grass roots were starved in the midst of plenty, while disbursement of resources and logistics was not properly done.”