The Central Regional Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Eric Donaldson, has accused a former regional chairman, Bernard Allotey Jacobs of insatiability, saying he once presented a budget for a party activity which contained a component of GH¢150,000 allocation for the purchase of meat pie.
But in what appears to be a quick response, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, fired that he made his fortunes even before joining the NDC.
Interestingly, while appreciating the late Prof. John Evans Atta Millis for appointing him to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), he failed to mention his hotels, guest houses and petrol filling stations he acquired during the NDC tenure.
Allotey Jacobs, also failed to mention his appointment by ex-President John Mahama as a board member of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
It was on an official trip on the ticket of NPA to Texas – USA, that the New Patriotic Party (NPP), claimed he had been arrested for drug trafficking, a charge which turned out to be untrue.
But he insisted that ”I’ve been a poultry farmer. Look, I own lands. They don’t know. They don’t know my background. They say anything anyhow. Yes, I will say NDC fed me because I worked for NDC during Professor Mills’ time. As uneducated as I am, Professor Mills appointed me a member of ECG Board. It’s unheard-of. Why wouldn’t they ask themselves why?…It’s an achievement of my contribution to the progress of the party”, he exclaimed during Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo”.
Bernard Allotey Jacobs who has been sacked from the NDC after an initial suspension, in a recent interview accused the party’s leadership of sidelining him in 2016 when he helped organized the party’s national campaign launch.
Reacting to Allotey’s claims, Eric Donaldson in an interview with Okay FM, accused Allotey Jacobs of hoarding campaign resources as well as deliberately bloating the budget for the said event at the Cape Coast Stadium.
According to Donaldson, the then Regional Chairman presented a budget which had a component of thirty thousand pieces of meat pie with the price of each piece pegged at GH¢5.
He added that there was no reasonable way the said quantity of pie could have been procured by Allotey Jacobs to feed the party members who attended the event.
“I heard him on radio claiming that he was sidelined at the campaign launch in Cape Coast. Ask him what budget he brought from Cape Coast to Accra. In that budget how many pieces of meat pie did he budget for? Chairman Allotey made provision for the purchase of 30,000 pieces of meat pie at a cost of Ghc5, meat pie budget alone was GH¢1.5 billion old cedis,” he said.
“I don’t see any pastries company in this country that has the capacity to produce 30,000 pieces of meat pie in a day to feed people who come for a programme,” he added. In his view, the former Regional Chairman was overhyped and that the NDC would be be better off in the next election without him.
Allotey Jacobs in recent interviews disclosed that after ensuring the Cape Coast Stadium was packed for the party’s regional campaign in 2016, he was denied recognition when the day of the event finally came.
“After instructing me to organize and fill Cape Coast Stadium for the campaign inauguration, the little boys around the president ignored me. In every organization, when you have such a program it is the regional chairman who welcomes everybody and the leader but they changed the program last minute and removed my name,” he stated.
The former Central Regional Chairman of the party, weeks ago, said he was no longer a member of the NDC saying “I no longer belong to the NDC…I know I have been suspended but I’ve dismissed myself. I’m not going to join the NPP; I will never be an NPP member but I’m no longer with the NDC…”
But despite saying he had sacked himself albeit verbally, the NDC leadership in a letter released to the press on Tuesday announced they have dismissed Allotey Jacobs after months of his suspension for displaying what the party described as ”anti-party conduct”.
The letter read; “At our meeting on Wednesday 17th March 2021, the Functional Executive Committee of the NDC considered the report and recommendations of the Disciplinary Committee on the case or misconduct and anti-party behaviour brought against you Mr Allotey Jacobs pursuant to articles 48(I) (b) and 8 (b) of the NDC Constitution…You are therefore by the decision of FEC, expelled from the National Democratic Congress and for that matter no more recognized as a member of the party and cannot carry yourself as such.”
Some members and supporters of the party, have also branded Allotey Jacobs a traitor over his conduct.
They claim but for the NDC, Allotey wouldn’t have made the fortunes he’s made in life and find his conduct as an act of betrayal.
But to Allotey, such persons are rather exposing their ignorance. ”They are ignorant. They don’t know Central Region and they don’t know the contributions we have made to bring the party to that level till the party lost in 2016.” Allotey laughed off the invectives hurled at him by some NDC supporters saying ”some people don’t know even my background. They just stand up and say anything anyhow”.
