Plot To Sabotage Dr. Kwabena Duffour's Ahotor Project Team Backfires

The members of Dr. Kwabena Duffour's Ahotor Project Team have sounded a strong word of warning to the self seeking elements to stop their continuous habits of wishing bad for the Ahotor Project, saying that the project has been launched to give equipment support to  the grassroot members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the country.

The team noted that the truth of the matter is that the Ahotor Project has come to stay and that the project was designed to give support to the Grassroot Members of the NDC in the constituencies.

The members of stated categorically that they are still following proper procedures and processes in the  distribution of equipment and logistics packages to the region's numerous constituencies as part of their Ahotor Project initiative, aimed at resourcing and empowering the NDC grassroots.

According to the members of the team, they have been effectively engaging all the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Regional and Constituency Executives of in the regions and constituencies, they visited to distribute equipment and logistics under the Ahotor Project.

Co-ordinator of the Ahotor Project, Mr Abass Osabutey was sharply reacting to the current ill advised outburst relation to the Ahotor Project Team by the NDC’s Ashanti Regional Communications Officer, Mr. Xxxxx Nurudeen.

In a current media report, Mr. Nurudeen, purporting to be speaking on behalf of the entire Ashanti Regional Executives has accused Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, a former finance minister, of not following proper procedures when distributing the Project items to the region’s numerous constituencies as part of his Ahotor initiative.

According to Mr. Nurudeen, the Regional NDC Executives weren’t involved in the initiative’s execution and weren’t even contacted.

The Party has in the recent past, had issues with the way and manner in which,  money is distributed to party members.

According to Abass Nurudeen, the NDC’s Ashanti Regional Communications Officer, the executives are not necessarily opposed to giving party members and constituencies logistics, but they do object to what he alleges, to be disobedience on the part of the Ahotor Team.

“While we are not opposed to the provision of logistical support in any form to the party at any level, we believe that the correct party structures must be followed so that the regional executive body can supervise and ensure that those resources donated are put to very good use."

He further states that "if you monitor the activities of the Ahotor Project team, you will realize that it is not a donation to the party in the strict sense of the word because the items are not donated to the party and the party is not allowed to manage the donated items thereafter.”

“An NGO is formed in each constituency consisting of five members that are mandated to manage the donated resources and whatever monies that are realized from such donations are to be paid into an account managed by the Ahotor team and this is a different kind of arrangement that is unknown to the party,” he stated.

But in a quick rebuttal, Mr Osabutey scolded Mr Abass Nurudeen and expressed his  disappointment in him making such unguided statements against the team without taking time to  consult effectively in order to have a full brief on the state of affairs.

According to him, they believed that if Abass Nurudeen had taken his time to do proper consultation by way of cross checking from his colleagues in the Ashanti Regional Executives of the NDC, he would not have engaged in the absolutely unnecessary misinformation of the public.

Mr Osabutey said that  before embarking on the distribution of the equipment and logistics to the Grassroot members of the NDC in the 15 constituencies in the Ashanti Region, his outfit officially wrote a letter on December 29, 2022 to inform the leadership of the Ashanti Regional Branch of the NDC.

He further disclosed, that they submitted the letter to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NDC, Augustus Nana Akwesi Andrews and duly copied the Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NDC, Dr. Frank Amoakohene.

In the stated letter, he noted that the Ahotor Team had detailed the programme of the activities and specified the date that they would start the distribution of the items to the Grassroot Members of the constituencies in the region.

"In the letter, we duly informed the Ashanti Regional Executives of the NDC, that we are scheduled to start the distribution of the equipments and logistics from Tuesday January 3, 2023 to Saturday January 7, 2023," he explained.

According to Mr Osabutey, they had taken their time to give details of all the 15 constituencies they were scheduled to visit for the distribution of the items.

"So if you look at the letter dated December 29, 2022, it clearly tells you that the Ashanti Regional Executives of the NDC were given five days notice before we even started any distribution of the equipments and logistics to the Grassroot Members in 15 constituencies in the region," he explained.

He stated that when they submitted the letter to the Ashanti Regional Executives of the NDC, they had not received any feedback from them indicating any opposition to the pending distribution, detailed in the letter.

Mr. Osabutey stressed that "if the NDC Ashanti Regional Communication Officer, had not prejudged but exercised a bit of patience and diligence, to talk to the leadership of the NDC in the region, he believes, that Mr Nurudeen would not have written such a stirring up unnecessary controversy,  challenging the modalities for distribution of the Ahotor items in the constituencies.

Mr Osabutey was of the view that "if you look at the content of the protest letter by Mr Nurudeen, it clearly shows he went on a one-man controversial tirade with barely any facts of the actual state of affairs."