Acting General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, says one of the main reasons he strongly went after the Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Dispatch newspaper to retract one of his recent publications about the elephant family was that the document he relied on in publishing the said article was malicious and had the tendency of further polarizing the party.
In the view of Boadu, apart from the said document being fake and false, it was important for him and the party to prevail on Ben Ephson to retract and apologize to the party since the said document was “dangerous for our party and society” if they allow it to pass.
Interacting with Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM, Wednesday, Boadu who is also the National Organizer of the NPP said Mr. Ephson was not the only one having the said document and therefore, there was the possibility of serializing it to further deepen the cracks in the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition.
“When you lay your hands on the document and reads it, straight away you will notice that this is a propaganda story. Everything in this document has an intention of further polarizing the NPP; creating confusion in the party; setting brothers against brothers; setting workers against themselves and against leadership of the party. Everything – this is a well orchestrated document. There are some lines in the document that President Mahama picked and spoke about in Cape Coast during NDC campaign launch”.
“So, if you look at the document, there is a lot of meat in it. There is a possibility of serializing this document. In the hands of a good man, a cutlass could be used to prepare food and protect himself but in hands of a bad man, the cutlass is a weapon. Ephson was not the only person in possession of the document and so if he doesn’t serialize it, others will do it”, he noted.
Ephson was recently asked by the NPP to retract and apologize to the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition over a story the party considers was an attack on its image and integrity.
The Editor-In-Chief had published in his Daily Dispatch Newspaper that the NPP had a committee advising its members to lie to Ghanaians ahead of the December 7 polls.
The party took strong exception to the said publication and organized a press conference to call on Ephson to retract the publication and render unqualified apology to the party because in their view the said document which he relied on for the publication was fabricated and false.
Boadu also told Ephson not to allow himself to be used by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Ephson who also appeared on the program told Banson that he had no problem retracting and apologizing to the NPP over the publication he made.
“The main reason why I apologized immediately is that as newsmen sometimes you can get your facts wrong. I’m a human being and not Jesus Christ. I’m not perfect. If in 42 years I’ve had to apologize five times or something else …”, he noted.
Additionally, he told Banson that he has now learnt a big lesson from the his ordeal, promising that he will henceforth, contact John Boadu or any party official if he lays his hands on an internal party document for verification before going to press.
Commenting further, he admitted that there were portions of the said document that sought to knock the heads of the various factions in the NPP together but stressed that he deliberately avoided using those portions.
“So, immediately the party disowned the document, I quickly had to retract and apologize”, he added.
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