Odamtten pledges political Jihad for Mahama in Tema East

Former Metropolitan Chief Executiv

e of Tema, Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtten, is promising a tough, sacrificial campaign that will turn over the Tema East Constituency, to the NDC.Gunning for the opposition party’s Flagbearer in 2020, he looks poised to win the NDC’s 2020 Parliamentary ticket for the Constituency.

Mr Odamtten picked nomination forms amidst a winsome atmosphere that included the fact that his predecessor at the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, Kempes Ofosuware, accompanied him to the party office.

“2020 is already beckoning us all over the country including Tema East here because Ghanaians have seen the difference in the exceptional statecraft under former President Mahama, and what we are saddled with now, but still we have to be militant in our campaign to ensure that the victory is birthed safely.

“This coming election is going to be a political jihad for John Mahama and the NDC in this Constituency, and I as Parliamentary Candidate will lead the charge,” Mr Odamtten said on the sideline of nomination forms picking process at the party office in Tema Community One.

The promise was an indication of a tough campaign that he would run as PC.

The former MCE virtually has the coast cleared for him to become the NDC’s PC for Tema East in 2020, because the most formidable would-be contestant, Kempes Ofosuware, has swerved expectations that he would run for the ticket and rather joined forces with Odamtten.

When Odamtten went to the Constituency office to pick the nomination forms, Kempes was in accompaniment like his right-hand man.

Mr Ofosuware, himself a former MCE of Tema, has since explained that he took the decision not to contest because he felt it was time to support someone else.

“I contested for the MP in this constituency for three times and was not successful, I feel God is telling me that his plan for me is not to be an MP here, but probably something higher, and so the natural thing to do is to make way for someone else and at the moment, our best foot forward as Tema East NDC is Odamtten,” Kempes said.

As part of Mr Odamtten’s political jihad for John Mahama, he promised to roll out a tough door-to-door campaign to sell the accomplishments of himself as Tema MCE under the former President, and Mahama’s impressive legacies, to voters.

“We are going to hit the ground running, once the ticket is secured, God willing,” he said.

Already, signs of a solid united front by the NDC behind Ashai Odamtten were on display when he went to pick the nomination forms.

A massive crowd of party supporters which had accompanied him to the Community One party office, later also escorted him through some principal streets of Tema.

The train eventually converged at the Tema Fishing Harbour before moving to Tema Community One.

One of the people in the crowd was Stephen Ashitey Adjei, alias Moshake, a Special Assistant to Kempes Ofosuware. He explained that there was a plan for Kempes to meet his supporters and inform them of his intent to support Ashai Odamtten, but things delayed.

“We intended to meet our support base and communicate the new plan to them, but the plans went out of gear when Ghana lost against Tunisia in the ongoing African Cup of Nations in Egypt and Kempes needed some time to recover from the disappointment,” Moshake said.

He apologised for the omission but pointed out that nothing was spoilt, as the two NDC titans were together now. “Our common adversary is the NPP and Kempes is urging all his supporters to fight NPP with everything they have so the seat can be won in 2020.”

Moshake praised the decisions of Noah Afedo and Lord Hamah to abandon plans to pick nomination forms and rather threw their support behind Odamtten.

In respect of Nii Tetteh Bediaku Kraku, a man based in the United States of America, whose supporters had already picked forms for him, Moshake said he believed the man would apply wisdom and manage money frugally.

“I know Nii Kraku as a level headed man who has great love for the NDC and therefore believe he will do the right thing and step down so we can all support our candidate to victory in 2020,” Moshake said.

“Serial losing is not a good thing and that is why Americans believe in the theory Select your fight carefully,” Moshake said.