A Deputy Women’s Organiser of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Tina Mensah, has said that her boss, Otiko Djaba’s family ties with President John Dramani Mahama, raises huge suspicions about her loyalty and membership of the NPP.
Tina Mensah, who is contesting the 52-year-old Otiko Djaba for the Women’s Organiser position, last week, suggested that the NPP Woman Organiser, was a spy in the party, adding the women’s leader is better off leaving the party.
“If perceptions are there and you think it’s strong, it is better you stand aside”, Tina Mensah suggested to her boss, whom she claims has been fighting her ever since she got into that position.
“Otiko is connected to Mahama; Otiko is Mahama’s first cousin. She has been saying it everywhere and what the people are saying is that: ‘no serious country goes to war with a leader having blood relations with the enemy’”, she clarified on Radio XYZ Breakfast Show hosted by Moro Awudu, last Thursday.
Otiko Djaba, Boniface Saddique Abubakar, Lepo Wura Alhaji M.N.D Jawula, Samuel Abu Jinakpo and other supporters of the NPP, particularly those from the Northern Region, have suffered accusation of spying for President Mahama, such that some of them no longer feel safe in the NPP.
Even, recently, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, half-Ga-half-Voltarian, was told to get out of the party, for making a case for NPP National chairman aspirant, Paul Afoko, a northerner, over attempt to disqualify him with accusation that he was once jailed over a narcotic drug-related issue.
Not too long ago, the men in the NPP, also took on one another. Kennedy Agyapong accused incumbent National Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey of squandering party cash and other resources including, motorbikes for the 2012 campaign.
Kwebena Agyapong, who is vying for the General Secretary slot also took on the incumbent, Kwadwo Owusu Afrieye alias Sir John, for accusing him and other leaders of the party as lacking vision. He described Sir John in particular as being very poor in communication.
National Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, also recently took on his Deputy, Fred Oware saying, he was not worthy of trust, because he had told him he was not going to vie for the NPP national chairmanship, but is currently doing so.
In the case of Ms. Djaba, she has been fighting off suspicion that she is an NDC mole in the NPP, since the 2012 Presidential Election. She told the same XYZ Breakfast Show last Wednesday that her opponents are using the mole smear to run her down.
Last Wednesday, she tried a trick to redeem her image by describing President Mahama as an embarrassment to Northerners. But the trick did not work.
“This President is not serious. He has embarrassed a lot of Northerners”, she said on Radio XYZ commenting on the President Mahama’s Free Senior High School (SHS) announcement.
“He owes Nana Addo an apology for all those useless adverts he put out in the lead up to the 2012 elections”.
“He’s embarrassing mother Ghana and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is telling him that: ‘E no dey go well’, so he should stop the ‘edey be k3k3’; put down his Dubai things and get down to the ground and give us the bread and butter things that we need for the development of this country”.
She had referred to her detractors in the NPP as “witches and wizards” who are destroying the party.
On Friday, Otiko Afisa Djaba, directly accused her deputy of sabotaging her ambition to retain her position ahead of the party’s Delegates Congress to be held in Tamale.
Djaba’s arch rival and Deputy, Tina Mensah, has promised to exorcise the witches and wizards that her boss is complaining of, when she nudges her off the Women’s Organiser seat after the NPP’s April 12, 2014 annual national Delegates’ Congress in the Northern regional capital Tamale.
But in a riposte on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen Programme on Friday, Otiko Afisa Djaba, described as unfortunate the claims by her deputy that she was spying for President Mahama.
She said, it was an established fact that President Mahama is her first cousin but, “it does not mean I support him. My destiny is with NPP and no one can force me out”.
Otiko Djaba, likened the conduct of her deputy to the former heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, who bit off his opponent’s ear, when he [Tyson] could not defeat him.
“If you [Tina Mensah] can’t fight me, don’t bite my ear like Mike Tyson did to Holyfield”.
The NPP Women’s Organizer said, she was not perturbed by the “desperate” attempt by “enemies of progress to bring me down”.
“A deputy’s role is to support the elected officer and not to sabotage her. Winners never quit, so if you [Tina] can’t beat me, join me”.
She was confident party delegates will on April 12, vote for her to continue to ensure a landslide victory for the NPP in the 2016 general elections.
“I believe sincerely that come April 12, NPP delegates will vote for me to work hard to bring the party back to power,” she said.
But Tina Ayele Mensah, again fired back at Otiko Djaba, and attributed the NPP’s 2012 electoral defeat to lack of unity within the women’s front.
She said, Otiko Djaba who felt threatened by the capabilities of majority of the women willing to work to return NPP to power hijacked the campaign just to secure her job.
Madam Tina Mensah also on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme last Friday argued that if the women leadership had worked together in unity, the NPP would have won the 2012 elections on a silver platter.
Tina who described herself as a “unifier and a team player” said she will create an enabling environment and make the party’s secretariat more accessible to the women and also make their concerns known to leadership.
According to her, leaders must not lord over their subordinates, but must show them love so that they will have a sense of belonging and bring out the best in them. She is hopeful if that is done the party’s quest to win the 2016 general elections would be easy.
Tina Mensah “promised to empower the women in the party to become self-reliant and contribute significantly to the growth of the NPP”.
She called on aggrieved women in the party to forget about the past and join her campaign to unite the women’s wing of the party.
Otiko Djaba said Tina Mensah’s allegations were “baseless”, adding it is a desperate attempt to tarnish her hard earned reputation.
She also alleged that as her deputy, Tina Mensah rather sabotaged all her efforts to unite the women’s wing of the party.
Otiko Djaba said, she would not be distracted by her action because, “I know party delegates will reward my hard work by retaining me in power”.