NDUOM FIGHTS NDC OVER MILLS DEATH

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

A comment by the founder and presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom that some members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) thanked God over President John Evans Ata Mills’ death has sparked war-of-words between the two parties.

The fight has drawn in a brother of the late president who is contesting for the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) seat in the Central Region on the ticket of the NDC, threatening to ‘expose’ Dr. Nduom, an indigene of the area if he (Nduom) did not desist from those comments.

Taboo topic

Dr. Nduom, at a rally in Cape Coast recently, had said some NDC officials put on a public show of sorrow over Prof Mills’ demise but privately rejoiced, adding that the death paved the way for the NDC’s electoral victory in 2012.

“If you didn’t kill Mills and if you are not happy Mills died, produce the autopsy report. We are challenging John Mahama to produce the autopsy report of [late] President Mills. The Central Region people here, I want you to listen to me: if John Mahama comes to your region, tell him to produce the autopsy report,” Dr. Nduom had fired.

The PPP later re-echoed the demands by many people to get the NDC to disclose the autopsy report so that everybody would know what actually killed Prof Mills.

Bizarrely, within the ruling party the issue over what or who killed the law professor is a taboo topic.

Nduom Attacked

Matters came to a head yesterday when Samuel Atta Mills, younger brother of the late President Mills, attacked Dr. Nduom, threatening to ‘expose’ him if he fails to stop talking about his brother’s death.

 “Now what Papa Kwesi Nduom (needs to do) – and I’m sorry to call him Papa Kwesi Nduom – is, he needs to explain to Ghanaians why he changed his name from Joseph Yorke to Papa Kwesi Nduom. Look, the fact that we are peaceful doesn’t mean that you can take us for a ride. Papa Kwesi Nduom, this is a warning to him, he needs to shut up about always asking questions about who killed Prof,” he said on Class FM in Accra.

“Now if he keeps on saying that then it means he has some information. If he keeps on doing that his clan will have to come and explain to our clan what happened. My advice to Papa Kwesi Nduom is this: ‘If you don’t want a dog to lick you in the face, you don’t play with it.’ I don’t know why Paa Kwesi Nduom is making it his crusade. If he doesn’t shut up about that, I will make it my project to expose him.”

PPP Fires Back

However, PPP has issued a release challenging the NDC and Prof Mills’ brother to bring the so-called damning report the ruling party claims to have on Dr. Nduom and reiterated their demand to know what killed the former president.

A statement issued in Accra by PPP Director of Communications, Paa Kow Ackon, described Samuel Atta Mills as “the opportunist stranger in KEEA” and said the NDC candidate had caused a fight he would live to regret.

“It is a fact that President John Mahama and the NDC have repeatedly sought to use the death of the late President Atta Mills for political gain.  This obviously has suited the interests of Samuel Mills.

Does the younger Mills not know that the late Atta Mills was president for the whole Ghana and not his family only?  For crying out loud, what has Samuel Mills done to pursue his brother's death certificate and cure the inconceivable insult of his strange death and illegal burial?” the statement averred.

Elmina stranger

“The eccentric manners of Samuel Atta Mills and his ilk who in this 2016 year of our Lord think that there is something negative to ‘expose’ about Dr Nduom’s name (Papa Kwesi Nduom) is a confirmation that truly he does not even come from KEEA.”

The release said, “We cannot also rule out misguided mischief since the NDC from 2001 have tried to call Dr Nduom Peter Yorke, John Yorke, etc. Every Fante has both ancestral and Christian names and this is common among Fante families. So it is only non-proper Fantes like Samuel Mills who will cry over such basic Fante naming values.”

Elmina origin

“Everyone who is from KEEA and specifically Elmina knows that in Dr Nduom’s family there are popular names such as Nduom, Asankoma and Yorke. And it is public knowledge that at birth, Dr Nduom was named Joseph Hubster Yorke Jnr after his father; and Papa Kwesi Nduom after one of their illustrious family members. If Samuel Atta Mills cares to know, both names are in Dr Nduom’s baptism and birth certificates. Who in Elmina does not know Dr Nduom as Papa Nduom since his childhood?”

The party described Prof Mills’ brother as “a stranger who is trying so hard and quite unsuccessfully to convince people that he is also from KEEA who can expose himself about his ignorance to the extent of publicly threatening to expose Dr Nduom about a so-called change of name from Yorke to Nduom; when in actual fact, there has not been any change of name.”

It added that the NDC parliamentary candidate was only doing that to gain sympathy among the electorate.

“To set the record straight, it was Dr Nduom’s father who led Teacher Atta Mills to acquire the farm land at Essaman in Elmina for which today, Samuel Atta Mills has hired land guards to terrorize innocent people, even though he is unqualified to contest any election in KEEA. Was it not when the late Atta Mills became president that his family built a house at Essaman? The question is, so at what point did Samuel Atta Mills realize that he is from KEEA? Has he not always pointed to Cape Coast or Otuam as where they come from?” PPP queried.

More challenge

Earlier, at a rally in Accra, PPP General Secretary Murtala Mohammed had said the party stood by its demand for the autopsy report to be made public and dared the NDC candidate to go ahead and carry through his threat.

“…I was the one who made that request… The founder of NDC was the first person to tell us this story. Anita De Sosoo also said the same thing. Anyidoho said he was going to speak at the right time; [there are] rumours all over the place about how Mills died and what killed him as the first citizen of the land. The PPP is demanding they produce the autopsy report,” Mohammed posited.