A voluntary group of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alliance for Foot Soldiers Advocacy (AFFA), has called on appointees in the Akufo-led-government to desist from acts that demoralise the spirit of hardworking party members.

This follows a revelation by media personality Valentina Nana Agyeiwaa popularly called Afia Schwarzenegger that Chief of Staff Akosua Frema Osei-Opare allegedly paid for the flight expenses of her father’s casket and topped it up with an amount of GHS50,000 as a funeral donation.

According to AFFA, although it is sympathetic to the plight of bereaved individuals, it finds it “extremely [hard] to understand and accept the logic behind this particular gesture considering the opportunistic character involved, and the times” the country finds itself.

In a statement issued by AFFA on Tuesday, 15 March 2022, the group said: “Afia Schwarzenegger contributed nothing to the NPP’s success/victory in the 2016 general elections”.

“Rather, and as a matter of fact, she used her platforms to make mockery of then-opposition leader candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo prior to the 2016 elections.”

The group noted that it is, therefore, “shocking” that a few years down the line, with the NPP in power, the “Chief of Staff, as well as senior government officials, will suddenly forget the pain she caused the party and reward her beautifully to the annoyance of party members whose toil and sacrifices birthed the fruits of government.”

It added: “The era of rewarding opportunistic media personalities masquerading as political influencers at the expense of hardworking footsoldiers must stop! ‘Monkeys’ cannot work in the trenches for ‘baboons’ to come and chop.”