According to Stephen Atubiga, Rawlings was the founder of the NDC, so the government has no right to sideline the party in the planning of his funeral.
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“Even if Akufo-Addo buries Rawlings, we’ll send Kumchacha to exhume the body for us- Atubiga (video)
The debate as to who has the right between the state and the National Democratic Congress to bury the latter’s founder and former president Jerry John Rawlings continues as a member of the NDC’s communication team has vowed that they will exhume his remains even if the Akufo Addo-led administration buries him.
“Even if Akufo-Addo buries Rawlings, we’ll send Kumchacha to exhume the body for us- Atubiga
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He emphasized that the NDC was unenthused about the fact that President Akufo Addo failed to acknowledge the party in his speech and statement on the death of the former President.
He told Kofi TV in an interview that the party “will go and steal the body with the help of Kumchacha and others” for reburial.
“Even if Akufo-Addo buries Rawlings in his backyard, we will steal his remains and bury him again as a party which he founded.”
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The opposition NDC is currently in disagreement with the NPP government, accusing it of hijacking the funeral of their founder.
The party’s General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia is on record to have said on Accra-based radio station: “We were sorely disappointed that the President of the Republic, even in issuing a statement of condolence, refused or failed to recognise the fact that President Rawlings was the founder of the NDC.
“It is against all the different practices we have been engaged in, in the past, as far as the death of prominent members of the two political parties is concerned.
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“The President has refused to recognise that the man belongs to NDC, and he is the founder of NDC.
“Everything about this funeral, so far, depicts an attempt by an opponent to hijack the funeral of the founding father of our political party, and we don’t think the funeral of our party founder ought to be organised somewhere, and we get invited".
Meanwhile, The presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama has signed the book of condolence opened in honour of the late former President Jerry John Rawlings.
The Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Michael Oquaye, was also at the Accra International Conference Centre to sign the book of condolence.
The Speaker was accompanied by a member of the Parliamentary Service Board, Hackman Owusu Agyeman, and the Clerk to Parliament, Cyril Kwabena Oteng Nsiah.
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Rawlings died at the age of 73 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, where he was on admission after falling sick.
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