NPP National Chair Has No Moral Authority... � Kobby Acheampong

Deputy Minister for the Interior, Kobby Acheampong, has issued a strong caveat to the National Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, to stop poking his nose in matters unrelated to him and focus on the NPP�s campaign. To him, the NPP National Chair is the last person to either offer counsel to or reprimand President Mills and the NDC over some isolated acts of violence. He was reacting to claims by Mr. Obetsebi Lamptey that in just 2� years of President Mills� rule the level of impunity and lawlessness that has crept into the country is unparalleled. The NPP Chair, who was speaking in an interview with the New Crusading Guide, also called on President Mills to, �for a change, begin seeing evil, hearing evil and acting against evil� after describing the assassination attempt on the life of the ruling party�s Ashanti Regional chairman last Thursday, as �taking violence in NDC politics to another alarming level which must not be tolerated.� But speaking on Metro TV�s Good Morning Ghana show, Kobby Acheampong described Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey�s remarks as the effusions of a fear-monger stressing that the NPP National Chairman has no moral authority to offer any form of counsel to President Mills. He claimed among other things that the stock in trade of Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey is creating fear and panic among the public. �If someone wants to give President Mills advice and it shouldn�t be Jake; I am sorry. He was part of the agenda and strategy to create fear and panic among Ghanaians for them (NPP) to succeed in winning the elections in 2000, so what is he talking about? Has he now realized that creating fear and panic is not good? That is his modus operandi,� he noted. He advised the NPP Chair to for once conduct an introspective search before seeking to offer advice to others, adding that �he must remove the clot from his own eyes first�. �I am taking him back to history so he shouldn�t sit down and advice; let him remove the clot in his own eyes. He should remove the log from his eye and when he has done that he can see better to come and advice someone,� he added. He added that since the alleged assassination attempt on the life of the Ashanti Regional Chairman is still under investigation, it was premature and �senseless� on the part of anybody to draw conclusions.