Court To Decide On NPP Congress

Prof Mike Ocquaye
Accra fast Track high Court presided over by Justice Mustapha habib logoh, will on october 3, 2014 decide whether or not the New Patriotic Party (NPP) could go ahead with its National Delegates' Congress slated for october 18, 2014.

This was after two of the party's members - Rexford Adjei Frimpong and Oppong Kyekye – had dragged the party to court challenging the decision of the National Council to fix the said date for the congress.

Eric Atieku, counsel for the plaintiffs, moved the motion and told the court that he had filed an affidavit in support of his motion which he hoped would convince the court on why the party should be stopped from going to congress next month.

He said the matter before the court had 'to do with the interpretation of the NPP Constitution which is the spirit of the party.'

Counsel noted that the party's Constitution was what kept its members together, adding that if the congress was not stopped it could lead to a disintegration of the party as some members would be peeved at the outcome.

The trial judge asked plaintiffs' counsel about the issue of capacity of his clients, who counsel for the NPP had earlier said lacked capacity to bring the action against the party.

Mr. Eric Atieku stated that the members had the capacity and would bring their membership cards to show to the court in what capacity they were acting.

In addition, he said the date fixed for the congress by the National Counsel was short of the six months mandated and therefore contravened Article 12 A (2) of the NPP Constitution because the period of nomination was in June 2014 and therefore prayed the court to stop the congress.

Godfred Yeboah-Dame, counsel for the party responding to the motion, said the plaintiffs had not shown in what capacity they had brought the said action to court.

He said they could have attached copies of their membership cards but had not done so and observed that what they were seeking was to throw the party Constitution out of gear.

Furthermore, he stated that the plaintiffs had not done anything to show that they had exhausted the internal party mechanism aimed at resolving disputes among party members.

After advancing his legal arguments, Mr. Yeboah-Dame prayed the court to dismiss the application.

The trial judge therefore fixed October 3 for ruling.

Both plaintiffs were in court. The NPP was represented by Prof. Mike Oquaye Snr, Mike Oquaye Jnr and Andy Appiah-Kubi.

Yaw Osafo-Maafo former Youth, Education and Sports Minister, was also there with some members and sympathizers of the party.

By Fidelia Achama