Accra, Jan. 12, GNA – A delegation from the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), led by the Chairperson, Nana Akosua Frimpomaa, on Tuesday, paid a courtesy call on Madam Olga Syradin, Guinea’s Ambassador to Ghana, to mark the 100th birthday of Sekou Toure.
A press statement to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the courtesy call was on the occasion of the “100th birthday of Comrade Sekou Toure, one of the remarkable leaders of the African Liberation Struggle in Guinea, who led it to independence from France in 1958.”
The CPP delegation was made up of the National Women Organizer, Hajia Aisha Futa, the National Treasurer, Opare Addo, Director of Elections, Yakubu Alhasan, the Welfare Officer, Joyce Larbie and Mr. Dickson Mensah, an external visual director for media at the office of the Chairperson of the Party.
Nana Frimpomaa, said Sekou Toure’s great contributions to “revolutionary Pan Africanism” in general and Guinean independence, in particular, embraced the African spirit of brotherhood.
“I stand in the same seat of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah before he passed on. We, the new leadership of the Convention Peoples Party believe that the glory of our founding fathers and their hard work must continue.
“I believe that the love exhibited by Sekou Touré and Dr. Nkrumah is worth emulating and that their good intention of uniting Africa must continue,” she said.
The statement said the Chairperson re-ignited the Party’s relationship with “brothers and sisters in Guinea and say ‘Ayikoo’ to the departed soul of Comrade Sekou Toure who came to the rescue of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and invited him to Guinea.”
“It is remarkable to know from history that when Dr. Nkrumah arrived in Guinea on March 2, 1966, together with his bodyguards and a few civil servants who had remained with him, Nkrumah was received by Sekou Touré as Head of State and given a 21-Gun Salute.
“At the airport, Comrade Sekou Touré declared that Kwame Nkrumah would be with him as “the Head of State of and Secretary-General of the Guinean Democratic Party,” she said in the statement.
The Chairperson said: “After the death of Nkrumah on April 27, 1972, in Romania, where he had travelled for treatment, Sekou Touré declared three days of national mourning throughout Guinea. Touré concluded with the words “Nkrumah is not Ghanaian, he is an African, Nkrumah will never die.”
The statement said Nana Frimpomaa announced the Party’s plans to visit Guinea and learn of where Dr. Nkrumah lived, show appreciation to the people of Guinea to bond friendship, love and mutual understanding for the common good of Africa.
It said the Chairperson presented four plaques and Party paraphernalia to Madam Syradin to initiate a new friendship with the people of Guinea.
Madam Syradin expressed gratitude on behalf of the President of the Republic of Guinea, staff of the Embassy and the Guinean community in Ghana for the visit by the CPP and its leadership and recounted healthy relationship with Ghanaians back in her youthful days in Guinea.
She said Guinea’s President Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, would be pleased to learn of the visit by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s CPP and would be willing to connect with his forefather’s routes.
Madam Syradin said: ” This visit is in the framework of the centenary celebration of Sekou Touré and I am so excited because CPP, the Party of Kwame Nkrumah played a crucial role in securing African Political Liberation.”
She said: “The brotherly relationship between Ghana and Guinea is a seal for eternity,” and added that Africans were supposed to defend the interest of Africa and develop together and that was what Touré and Nkrumah achieved together.
GNA