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The race for who becomes the 2024 parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Ayawaso West Constituency has destroyed the long years of sweet friendship between popular Ghanaian actor cum farmer John Dumelo and the Best Man at his wedding, Fred Nuamah, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Movie Awards (GMA).
Dumelo, on Saturday alleged on UTV’s United Showbiz that he had been lied upon, stabbed in the back and betrayed by Fred Nuamah simply because of the interest to become the Ayawaso West candidate.
During the last elections, Dumelo was the NDC candidate for the constituency but this time around, Fred Nuamah released campaign posters and confirmed that he would be contesting the NDC parliamentary primaries for the same seat.
Barely a week after Fred had publicly made his political intentions known, John Dumelo also released his campaign posters for the same seat on the same party’s ticket.
Fred Nuamah, recently explained to the media that he decided to contest the seat only after he had discussed it with Dumelo and both had agreed on it.
“My brother informed me and a lot of people that he was not going to contest the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency again. He gave me his blessings when I made up my mind to contest”
“Truthfully, I am surprised about his u-turn because it was evident and crystal clear that he was not going for the Ayawaso seat anymore and rather invested in Guan/SALL,” Fred said.
He explained further: “I would have rather expected him to honour his word when he said he won’t contest the seat and, therefore, throw his support behind me. Besides, the argument that my brother made history for the NDC doesn’t hold for me. Our party has been performing quite well in that constituency in previous elections before he contested the last elections.
“We have even won the presidential votes in Ayawaso before. We always come close to winning the parliamentary; we only lose it by some small margins. So, all the previous candidates, including John Dumelo, did well, but the ultimate is to win and not close a gap or place second,” Fred noted.
But reacting to the claims by Fred Nuamah on United Showbiz on Saturday night, John Dumelo denied ever giving his blessing to his former friend as claimed.
“This is someone who called me two months ago and told me he has heard I am coming back so he will support my bid and now he is saying I gave my blessing. When did I give my blessings to him”
“Does he think politics is a joke? Does he think we are joking around? can he stand the NPP? I was able to match up to the ruling party boot for boot in 2020. Can he?,” he quizzed.
Mr. Dumelo accused his friend of 20 years of backstabbing him with his announcement but he disclosed that he will lose in his bid.
“I think this is a betrayal and a stab in the back, especially for someone I’ve known for more than 20 years. I didn’t want to speak about this but I needed to clear the air after his statements…he is a liar,” John Dumelo added.
Dumelo was narrowly defeated by now incumbent Member of Parliament(MP) for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Lydia Seyram Alhassan in 2020 and is said to have a direct advantage over Fred Nuamah.
Unlike Fred Nuamah who is not known for hard core partisan politics, John Dumelo is the most recent NDC parliamentary candidate for the Ayawaso West seat after he contested but lost very narrowly in the 2020 general elections.
Many, after the 2020 results, urged Dumelo to give the seat a second try as he stood a great chance of snatching it from the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s Lydia Seyram Alhassan, who became MP after her husband, who was the MP passed on and paved way for a rather bloody by-election.
In recent months, speculations were rife that John Dumelo would not give the Wuogon seat a second try and that he would rather move to the Volta Region, his home region to continue grab one of the seats there.
Political pundits said it would be wrong for the NDC to allow John Dumelo to the Volta Region to contest for an already safe seat that is occupied by the same NDC and that it would be more profitable if he returns to contest the Wuogon seat which he nearly won.
The analysis was that Dumelo is an attractive political commodity who has been baptized into the art and craft of retail politics and he returns to the Ayawaso West campaign field as an already marketed candidate with first-hand practical experience and not just theoretical fanciful hypothesis.
At the 2020 elections, the NPP candidate, who was the incumbent, Lydia Seyram Alhassan polled 39851, while John Dumelo, a first timer polled 37478, kissing defeat with some 2,373 votes less.
Apart from Fred and John, one other who has expressed ambition for the same Ayawaso West on the NDC ticket is a former Vice President of the University of Ghana SRC, Moses Baafi Acheampong.
