Insiders Say Legal Ordeal Offers a Convenient RespiteBy
By Gifty Boateng
Insiders suggest the party’s public outrage over the Bono Regional Chairman’s detention masks a private satisfaction: his toxic brand of politics had become an unmanageable liability.
Behind the carefully orchestrated outcry over Kwame Baffoe’s (alias Abronye DC) incarceration, a different current runs through the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
They want you to think the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is weeping over the detention of its Bono Regional chairman, Kwame Baffoe, aka Abronye DC.Don’t believe the tears.
The New Republic has gathered overwhelming evidence that senior NPP figures including MPs, cabinet alumni, and party bigwigs are quietly popping champagne behind closed doors.Their secret verdict?
The law has done what the party lacked the spine to do: shut up a loose cannon who had become an uncontrollable liability.
“He was fast becoming a monster,” a senior party operative told this paper, speaking on condition of deep anonymity. “We couldn’t muzzle him. If the law wants to keep him there, let him stay. It’s good for our image.
”That sentiment relief, not outrage is the real story.While the party machinery publicly protests, decent, level-headed members and MPs who have long feared Abronye’s acidic tongue are said to be celebrating his ordeal like a national holiday. Why? Because no one knows whose name he would spit out next.
The recent histrionics by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin including his theatrical broadsides against the court are nothing but a face-saving charade, multiple insiders have confided. “It’s all pretence,” one source said.
“Deep inside, they are fully supportive of his imprisonment. They just cannot say it publicly. ”The party leadership, according to insiders, had become terrified of the loud-mouthed regional chairman.
He had grown so untouchable that even senior figures feared to call him to order because a single dare would unleash a blistering attack. Nana Akomea, the NPP’s Communications Director, let the cat out of the bag last year during the presidential primary campaign.
Speaking on Adom TV, Akomea admitted that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia whom Abronye claimed to support wholeheartedly “has had reason to sometimes call him to order, but he still does what pleases him.
”If the Vice President couldn’t rein him in, who could?Abronye’s victims read like a Who’s Who of NPP and Christian leadership.
He publicly humiliated former President John Kufuor at a council meeting. He savaged Ken Ohene Agyapong so brutally that the former Assin Central MP still cannot come to terms with the insults a feud that has poisoned party unity. He levelled serious, unsubstantiated allegations against General Secretary Justin Frimpong Kodua, forcing Kodua to run to the Disciplinary Committee.
The party secretariat itself admitted that Abronye’s actions were “severely damaging to the image, unity, and integrity of the organisation.
”He insulted Dr Richard Anane, Kwaku Asomah Cheremeh, and many others. And when the NPP lost the 2024 election, Abronye turned his guns on Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, falsely accusing the revered cleric of giving $10,000 to pastors to fund John Mahama’s campaign.
The lie was so brazen that the NPP was forced to issue an official statement distancing itself and apologising to the Bishop.
After a physical brawl with Ken Agyapong in Sunyani during Bawumia’s ‘thank you’ tour an event that was abruptly suspended Abronye boldly declared his plan to launch his own online channel: Ohia TV.
His mission? “To deal ruthlessly” with Agyapong and anyone else who crossed him.But even more explosive:
The New Republic has learnt that Dr Bawumia allegedly planned to sponsor Abronye to operate from abroad a US-based studio modelled on Ghanaian expatriate broadcaster Kevin Taylor.
The idea, according to insiders, was to unleash Abronye as a proxy attack dog from a safe distance.But senior party elders pooh-poohed the plan.
Their argument? They were not sure how or when Abronye, while abroad, would turn his guns on them. All this unfolds as an Accra High Court on Thursday, May 21, granted Abronye a GH₵100 million bail with two sureties to be justified.
But last week, an Adenta Circuit Court had ordered him kept in BNI cells until the completion of his trial.
The court’s chilling reason: fear that if released, he would go and commit an even worse crime. He faces charges of offensive conduct and publication of false news.
For now, the party’s silent majority is praying the law keeps him as long as possible. “We need respite,” one MP told The New Republic. “We are trying to reorganize and rebuild the party. With Abronye out of the way, maybe we can breathe. ”The public pretence of outrage will continue.
The press releases will condemn the court. The minority leader will put on his show. But behind the scenes, they are jubilating.And they are not sorry.