I Will Never Apologize ─ Vanderpuye Proves Stubborn

Right thinking persons expecting Member of Parliament for Odododiodio, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, to apologize over his resent public gaffe, are in for a bigger disappointment.

Details are emerging that the MP has reportedly refused to retract and apologize for saying that the National Democratic Congress, NDC, will free incarcerated former GYEEDA Coordinator Abuga Pele, the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Chiana-Paga in the Upper East Region should the party return to power after election 2020.

“It is unfortunate but I can only say that this will not dampen the spirit of the NDC. Between 2001 and 2004, they sentenced Tsatsu Tsikata, Dan Abodakpi, Ibrahim Adam and Kwame Perprah. It did not stop us from winning elections in 2008. We are going to win the elections and bring Abuga Pele out,” the MP told Citi News after the party’s Unity Walk at Somanya in Eastern Region.

The Odododiodio MP’s comments comes barely a week after the imprisonment of Abuga Pele, the former National Coordinator of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) by an Accra Financial Crimes Court.

The comments triggered wide spread criticisms with many wondering why the NDC government which had started the prosecution in 2014 would now seek to release the ‘culprits’.

Hours after the comment widely publicized the party’s founder, Jerry John Rawlings condemned Nii Lantey’s comments, saying such mindsets could only keep the party in opposition for a long time.

The NDC subsequently issued a statement distancing itself from the comment indicating It that the party had no plans to free Abuga Pele as suggested by the MP should they win power.

But Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the party, speaking on Pro-NDC Accra-based Radio Gold revealed the Odododiodio legislator failed to retract and apologize for the comment when he personally contacted him.

Defending the party’s position, Mr. Nketia explained that the rebuttal was necessary because the MP failed to retract and apologize for the comment when he personally contacted him.

“He made claims about the party that are not correct so we came to set the records straight. He has the right to state his position but if a comment is made to implicate the party the gatekeepers will have to set the records straight. “

Mr. Nketiha known in politics as “General Mosquito” claimed: “I did contact him (Nii Lantey Vanderpuye). He was the first person I spoke to but he insisted that he stands by that statement.”

By: Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson/ thePublisher