Dr. Gideon Boako, Member of Parliament for Tano North and Aide to former Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has detailed how an attempt to unite the party through a countrywide tour escalated tensions and appears to have deepened cracks within the party.
Dr. Bawumia, who led the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 elections, is currently on a tour countrywide dubbed “Thank You Tour” to express gratitude to party members and Ghanaians for supporting and voting for him and the party in the December polls despite their defeat.
Ahead of the tour, Dr. Bawumia had announced in an address at the party’s headquarters that he was inviting his internal contenders to join him for the trip.
Some, including his close contender in the last internal presidential primary Kennedy Agyapong, joined but the former Member of Parliament for Assin Central later withdrew after one of his supporters was allegedly stabbed.
Speaking in an interview on Breakfast Today on Dreamz FM as part of Dr. Bawumia’s visit to the Upper East Region, Dr. Gideon Boako explained that the former flagbearer’s decision to invite his former internal contenders was aimed at uniting the party.
But his well-intentioned act brewed tensions and appears to have deepened cracks within the party.
Detailing the circumstances that led to Kennedy Agyapong’s withdrawal from the tour, Dr. Boako said the former Assin Central MP and flagbearer aspirant was given preferential treatment when he joined the trip and spoke at every stop.
However, as the tour progressed, Kennedy Agyapong’s team mobilized his supporters and they engaged in subtle campaigns for his bid in the upcoming presidential primary, according the former Vice-President’s aide.
These acts, he stated, were beginning to divert the attention of the gatherings from the purposes for which they were organized.
He said although he had expressed Dr. Bawumia team’s discomfort with the development to Agyapong’s aide, the number of the former MP’s supporters continued to swell up and their acts became more distractive.
“I had calls to talk to one of Honorable Kennedy Agyapong’s guys. I said, ‘look, I’m beginning to see a trend which is not good. This is Bawumia’s program. Of course, he has shown respect and invited all of you. This new introduction of t-shirts belonging to Honorable Ken (is wrong)’.”
Dr. Boako recalled that, at one of their stops in Bantama in the Ashanti Regional, Agyapong’s team bused university students to the venue, who sang songs that cast aspersions on the 2024 flagbearer of the party.
“While we were in the bus waiting patiently with Bawumia, they were singing songs that were casting aspersions. And I was like, who is leading these people? It’s not right.”
These students later hijacked a rally held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, singing and drumming for about 20 minutes, he added.
Dr. Boako believes these acts were deliberate attempts to disrupt Dr. Bawumia’s quest to unite the party.
“Anybody who was inside the room will bear me witness that what happened there was not right. The students held the program hostage. When we invited Kennedy Agyapong to come and speak, he was standing, they held the program hostage for about 20 minutes, singing.
They had about eight songs that they had rehearsed. And they made sure they sang all of them. But Bawumia was sitting down quietly, never uttered a word,” he stated.
“As soon as Kennedy Agyapong finished talking, all of them left. So, it was obvious they had been mobilized to disrupt or do whatever it is.”
