Stop harassing Ofosu-Ampofo — Victor Smith tells NPP

Ghana’s former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Mr Victor Smith, has asked the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to desist from using the police to intimidate members of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), especially its National Chairman Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo.

In a statement issued by Mr Smith on Tuesday, 18 June 2019 to clarify a comment he made on Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Monday, 17 June 2019 to the effect that an audio recording that captured Mr Ofosu-Ampofo’s voice inciting communicators of the NDC against the Chairs of the Electoral Commission and the National Peace Council, is actually Mr Ofosu-Ampofo’s voice, Mr Smith said: “I would like to clear the air about a spin that detractors of the NDC have put on part of an interview that I granted an FM radio station on Monday”.

“In the said interview, I questioned the harassment the NPP, working through the police, was meting out to our Chairman and, by extension, to our party, the NDC.

“My view was that when President Akufo-Addo in 2012, then-presidential candidate of the NPP, said his infamous ‘all die be die’ [comment], what did the NDC government do to him? Nothing! The NDC government accepted that it was part of platform and campaign talk and he was allowed to work for his party. Other bigwigs in NPP have said even worse things in the past and have gone scot free.

“During the interview conducted in the Twi dialect mainly, I said, “I briefly heard Ofosu-Ampofo’s voice on tape on Ghanaweb but didn’t listen to the content. I also said I was not in a position to tell if someone’s voice is doctored or not.”

He added: “I believe a spin has been put on this whole interview to make it look like how some mischievous and desperate charlatans would wish for.



“The NPP and its apparatchiks will do anything and everything to score very cheap political points. I would like to urge our party leadership, and in particular, Chairman Ofosu-Ampofo and the rank and file of the party to stay focused on the work before us, as we all put our shoulders to the wheel to secure victory in 2020.”