Railway Minister, John Peter Amewu, has abandoned his ministry and is running around the country with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential hopeful, John Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, in his campaign to succeed Nana Akufo-Addo.
Mr Amewu, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hohoe, was on Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at a campaign event at the UPSA Conference Hall in Madina, Accra praising the impeccable reputation of Mr Kyerematen.
Speaking on the second day of Mr Kyerematen’s “delegates cluster meetings”, Mr Amewu, also Minister for Railways Development, urged delegates to rally behind Alan to save the party from unwanted personal attacks on their presidential candidate by the NDC.
The Herald’s sources within NPP, have said Mr Amewu, a former Energy Minister and who also served as Land and Natural Resources Minister in Akufo-Addo’s first term, is angling to Mr Kyerematen’s running mate, a position the former Zongo and Inner-city Development Minister, Boniface Abubaka Saddique, is also heavily interested in.
The insiders have claimed that Mr Amewu, has not been happy with President Akufo-Addo for not keeping him in the Energy Ministry unlike Ursula Owusu, Kwasi Amoako Atta, Ken Ofori-Atta, Ambros Dery, Dominic Nitiwul and several others, who were maintained in their various ministries after the 2020 General Elections.
The event served as a platform for NPP delegates from Adenta, Madina and Shai Osu Doku, to engage constructively with Mr Kyerematen, One of the frontrunners in the NPP flagbearer race, on his plans for the party and nation at large.
Mr Amewu encouraged NPP delegates to endorse the candidacy of the former Minister of Trade and Industry to counter the forthcoming NDC propaganda which could affect the party’s fortunes in the 2024 elections.
Addressing the delegates, he said, the fact that the NDC cannot find any derogatory evidence against Mr Kyerematen is sufficient grounds for party delegates to endorse him.
He called on the party machinery to look beyond the internal primaries and focus on the bigger picture as they hope to break the 8 in 2024.
Mr Amewu, has been on several platforms with Mr Kyerematen in recent times.
A video which has gone viral, had Mr Amewu suffering a political gaffe, while introducing Mr Kyerematen to some NPP delegates. He described the ex-Trade Minister as the next Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana.
Meanwhile, The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, has also been captured declaring his support for the presidential bid of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
Speaking in an interview on Okay FM, on July 4, 2023, Prof Attafuah, said that even though he has great respect for one of the party’s presidential hopefuls, Alan Kyerematen, in his view Dr Bawumia is the best choice for the NPP.
He added that he has known the vice president for decades and he believes that he is the right person to lead Ghana to prosperity.
“I have known Bawumia since 1991. We have been friends since then and if there is someone, I know better than it is Bawumia.
“He is someone, I have known outside politics. He was the best man at my wedding. Myself, Stephen Ntim and Bawumia, have been organising Mother’s Day parties together for our mothers for years.
“Because of what I know about Bawumia and the work I have done with him, I believe that he is more than competent and capable to handle it (the country). I know Alan Kyerematen, I respect him … but he is my second choice to Dr Bawumia; not because he can’t lead the country, but by my reckoning, Bawumia is superior to him,” he said in Twi.
Dr Bawumia and Alan Kyerematen are part of ten members of the NPP who have filed their nomination to contest in the party’s presidential primaries slated for November 2023.
The NPP would be holding a super delegate congress in August 2023 to reduce the number of contenders to five.
