NPP to boycott President Mahama’s inauguration

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) will boycott the inauguration of President John Dramani Mahama on January 7, the party’s National Executive Committee decided on Wednesday.

“The NPP will not be there. It will make nonsense of the petition we have filed at the Supreme Court,” the party’s general secretary, Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, told reporters after the meeting of the party’s leaders in Accra.

He said the leadership of the party threw its weight behind the step to challenge of the results at the Supreme Court saying it will support it all the way.

The Electoral Commission (EC) declared President Mahama winner of the December 7 election with 50.70 per cent of the votes ahead of the NPP’s candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo.

However, the NPP has claimed the result was not a true reflection of the elections and said its audit of the polling station results showed that Nana Akufo-Addo won in the first round.

The flag bearer, his running mate, Dr Mahammudu Bawumia and the Chairman of the party, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, have petitioned the Supreme Court to declare the result invalid.

The party’s leadership also maintained Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu as the minority leader and Mr Dominic Nitiwul as the Deputy minority leader to replace Mr Ambrose Dery who lost his seat to Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor.

Mr Dan Botwe, former General Secretary of the party, was chosen as the Chief Whip.

Source: GNA