NPP, EC are ganging up to kick me out of 2020 presidential race - Odike

Founder and leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Mr. Akwasi Addai-Odike has alleged that the ruling New Patriotic Party has connived with the Electoral Commission to prevent him from contesting in the December polls.

Explaining in a radio interview on Kumasi-based Pure FM with Nana Kwame Adjei, the UPP flagbearer claimed that, the NPP’s campaign Chairman, Hon. Peter Mac Manu and it's General Secretary, John Boadu have been the master brain behind what he described as a ‘coordinated ploy’ to stop him from filing his nomination for the Presidential race.

“The EC chair and her deputies are working for Akufo-Addo. This is not an allegation. I have never lied in my political life and I won’t lie on her for anything. She, Bossman Asare, Tete, Serebour Quaicoe, and the Ashanti regional director, Mr. Bannor Bio, have continued to try every means to stop me from filing because Mac Manu and John Boadu have instructed them to do so.

"It is like if you don’t speak for the NPP, they blacklist you.

"They have decided not to preside over any of my matters or attend to me on any of the electoral processes. I can show you evidence of my conversations with Serebour Quaicoe that they told me they can’t attend to me because they have heard someone has filed an injunction against my candidacy at Obuasi High Court… ‘They have heard’. Can you imagine?

"I am waiting until Friday when everything is said and done and Ghana will hear from me on all the machinations going on there and how badly they are treating me.” He disclosed.

But in a sharp response, the former National Chairman of the NPP, Hon. Peter Mac Manu stated on Pure FM that, “I'm the campaign chairman of the NPP. I don’t work with the EC and I have not met any of them to stop Odike from contesting in the race. He is not my focus. I have no idea of the claim he is making.”