Focus on crucial matters not our cleanup exercise at Mahama’s office

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has clarified that the machetes seen in the hands of some party youths around the office of its flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, last Thursday were not intended for any malicious purpose but were simply tools for a cleanup exercise.

This explanation comes in response to President Akufo-Addo’s condemnation of the incident in which some NDC members were filmed brandishing machetes near Mahama’s office.

President Akufo-Addo had strongly denounced the actions, stating that such behaviour has no place in the lead-up to or during the upcoming 2024 elections.

In a counterstatement, the NDC’s Deputy National Communications Officer, Malik Basintale, asserted that the president should instead focus on condemning instances of violence that occurred during the 2020 elections.

“Our flagbearer’s office, in the lawns, [you] have plants growing, you have roots, you have rodents. And we think that to help President Akufo-Addo succeed in making Accra the cleanest city, we will go to our flagbearer’s house and weed. I don’t see why President Akufo-Addo should go and sit somewhere and talk about people who engage in a cleanup exercise.

“In other words, being the president of the republic there are crucial things he should be speaking about. Savelugu somebody was killed, Ododiodoo somebody was killed. Why hasn’t he spoken about that,” he stated.