Ntim Jabs Mills

STEPHEN NTIM, a leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused President John Mills of turning a blind eye to the rampant and continuous intimidation, harassment and violent attacks on supporters of the NPP across the country.

Mr. Ntim, a former National 1st Vice Chairman of the NPP, explained that the closeness of the results of the  recent elections  shows that the new government would need the contribution of the minority in order to govern the country well, thus there is the crucial need for the President to call his ‘men’ to order.

“The President should be able to restrain the hawks in his party since it would be virtually impossible for him to govern or pursue his policies without the support of the minority…he must really call the hawks of his party to order since the NPP can no longer tolerate these unwarranted brutalities, intimidation and victimisation,” Mr. Ntim added in a statement.

The ex-chairman of the NPP said it would not be in the interest of the country for such harassments and intimidation to continue and that the President, as a matter of urgency, should rescue the situation.

Citing examples of such attacks on NPP members, Mr. Ntim mentioned the snatching of cars belonging to NPP activists under the pretext that they belong to the government, and the repeated violence meted out to the party’s supporters in various parts of the country including Agbogbloshi in Accra and parts of the Volta and Northern regions.

He added: “while the supporters of the NDC are being motivated from the flanks to tread this dangerous path, the State Security apparatus also continues to persecute former NPP government officials with the most recent being our Flag-bearer and his running mate in the 2008 elections.”

The NPP leader slammed the Transitional Team and accused it of churning out conflicting signals as to which instructions are to be obeyed and from whom.

He said instead of the NDC building upon the sound economic policies it inherited from the NPP administration, the new government decided to diminish the confidence of investors by declaring that the country is broke.

Mr. Ntim further criticised the sacking of 32 civil servants from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the halting of enlistments of 420 Ghanaian youth that had been recruited for the Ghana Armed Forces and the subsequent persecution of Col. Damoah who dared condemn the administrative injustice.

By Halifax Ansah-Addo