25 January 2006
"Kwesi Pratt Is An NDC Agent"
"Kwesi Pratt Is An NDC Agent"
Wednesday, 25 January 2006
Hon. Freddie Blay, Member of Parliament for Ellembelle and of the three rebels said to Image
have been expelled fom the Convention People’s Party (CPP), says his party colleague and managing editor of the Insight newspaper, Mr. Kwesi Pratt, is nothing but an agent of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) planted in the CPP to work against its interest.
“Kwesi Pratt is an agent of the NDC” he pointedly told Pratt. Taking his colleague party members to the cleaners, Blay who is also the first deputy speaker of Parliament alleged that Pratt, chairman of the Publicity Committee of the CPP was being used as the conduit through which information about the CPP is relayed to the opposition NDC.
In his words, Pratt “has always operated as a “fifth columnist” – defined by the Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary as someone who secretly supports and helps enemies of the country or organisation they are in). In Blay’s words, Pratt has consistently operated within the Nkrumahist organization for the sole purpose of gathering intelligence for the Rawlings-led NDC.
Asked to cite an example to back his allegation, he made mention of a MONAS group which he said Pratt went on to report on the erstwhile PNDC junta, which resulted in the arrest of himself, Kwaku Baako, Editor-in-Chief of the Crusading Guide and Kwesi Agbley among others. Speaking on an Accra based radio station, Kwesi Pratt stridently denied the charge saying it lacked any foundation.
He chastised Blay for moving away from a principled position of supporting the CPP and suggested that Blay was a shadow of the principled character he used to be. He also denied suggestions by Blay that he first announced their alleged expulsion from the CPP on PeaceFM Friday morning, insisting that he only did so as a discussant on the station that morning. In his blistering reaction to Pratt’s stunning announcement on PeaceFM that Blay and two other members of the CPP parliamentary caucus, namely Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, MP for KEEA, and Mr. Kojo Armah, MP for Evalue Gwira have been expelled from the party, Blay did not mince words. He went ballistic on his party comrade and dared Pratt to produce evidence that supported the announcement he made on Peacefm.
Failing to produce the said evidence, Pratt said he made the announcement after he had received the information from highly placed people within the CPP leadership. He explained that it was later that he learnt that a decision had been made to forward the issue to the party’s Disciplinary Committee. The Ellembelle MP slammed his party comrade for rushing to announce the news of their expulsion on radio when he knew he did not have the full facts to back the story he put out.
G. N. Concord
