Otiko/Naabu rift: Frustrated NDC can’t dictate to us – NPP

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has vehemently rejected the Minority’s condemnation of President Akufo-Addo’s handling of the feud between Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Otiko Djaba and the Northern regional chairman of the NPP, Daniel Bugri Naabu.

The two clashed on Friday after Naabu scuttled a meeting being held by Otiko in the Northern region of Ghana. Since then their alternations have led to name calling and wild allegations against each other.

In the wake of the feud, the governing party held a crunch meeting Wednesday night where it reprimanded the two.

At the Alisa Hotel meeting in Accra, the party’s National Council “expressed strong disapproval and regret against the actions and utterances” of the two leading party members.

“Even though the two apologized profusely, the meeting severely reprimanded them and bonded them to be of good behaviour. They were also asked to put their apologies into written statements,” a statement issued by the acting General Secretary of the party John Boadu after the meeting announced.

The Minority however, found the directive by the party to Otiko and Naabu as a tacit endorsement of their unfortunate conduct, and as a result chastised the President for being part of the people who gave the directive.

According to the Minority Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak “The attempt by the NPP and the Presidency to downplay the implications of the pronouncement made by Bugri Naabu and Otiko Djaba as far as good governance and security of our nation is concerned, cannot be tolerated.”

“It has implications. We can’t accept the excuse that it is a slip of tongue. What is their definition of a slip of tongue? Party apology does not take that away. Apologizing does not exonerate him from those comments, as far as his role as president of the republic of Ghana is concerned we expect him to uphold and defend the constitution,” he stated in an interview with Starr News.

The comment by the former presidential staffer however angered the governing Party’s Deputy General Secretary, Nana Obiri Boahen, who charged the media and the general public to ignore the comments by the opposition legislators, describing them as “frustrated politicians,” whose pre-occupation is baseless criticisms.

“I have listened to the NDC MP. Let me be very honest we don’t have to give credence to these frustration driven politicians who are interested in frustration driven press conferences,” he told Kwaku Obeng Adjei on the Starr Midday News Thursday May 11, 2017.

He said officials of the NDC lack the integrity to comment on matters bothering on good governance, arguing that what they did during their tenure was more repugnant compared to current happenings.

“Look when Bugri Naabu said he has been bribed by former president John Mahama with a vehicle and a sizeable amount of money, did they call for the arrest of Bugri Naabu? That comment by Bugri Naabu to a large extent also bothers on criminality. They don’t have the right to dictate to us what we should do,” he said.