Deputy General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress Koku Anyidoho has made an alarming allegation against the Institute of Economic Affairs, claiming they set a trap for late President John Evans Atta Mills in 2008 but failed.
Responding to a number of issues Friday on his party’s almost-strained relations with the IEA, Anyidoho alleged among other things that the body put certain traps in the way of the late President in the lead up to a major Presidential debate which the IEA organizes.
Insisting the traps were set to destroy and disgrace the then candidate Mills, Anyidoho who worked closely with the former and often was referred to as ‘Mills’ boy’ said the NDC’s issues with the IEA go beyond what has been publicly stated recently.
“Do you know where IEA held the Presidential Debate in 2008… they chose to organize the debate at a basement at the Alisa Hotel in Accra. Apart from that 2008 debate, the IEA has not held any of the Presidential debates there again.
“At that basement the stairs to the platform was so steep, if you recall…at that time there were rumours that President Mills was blind in one eye, and the programme was held around 8:00pm.
“I was always with President Mills at that time, descending down that stairs was not easy at all, and that was deliberate on the part of the IEA, so that he’ll tumble and fall, of course you’ll tell me that he was not the only one who attended that event, but a trap was set for him, but God being on his side he escaped. Some of the issues that we have with the IEA are so deep when we start talking someone will say we’re bitter, it’s not bitterness…facts are facts.
“Jean Mensah must not come and claim piety; she cannot foist her debate on us. If we say we’ll not go…we’ll certainly not go,” he told okay fm.
Both the IEA and NDC has had a love-hate relationship in recent times. While the IEA insists some of the issues the NDC has raised are uniformed, the NDC has often cried foul, adding the IEA is fast loosing respect for the political parties.
This week, the Jean Mensa-led body announced it was going to organize this year’s debate for the NDC’s John Mahama and NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo. READ HERE
