Landlord Locks Up NPP Office

A landlord at New Abirem in the Eastern region has locked up the New Abirem constituency office of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) located opposite the Abirem General Hospital, for non-payment of four months' rent, Today has learnt.

The action, sources at New Abirem told Today, followed the New Abirem NPP constituency executives' persistent failure to pay the money owed, despite numerous reminders and appeals by the landlord.

The development, the sources indicated, has greatly affected the picking of nomination forms for the forthcoming parliamentary primaries of the NPP in that constituency.

This, Today gathered, was because the office is under lock and key.
But that notwithstanding, Today also gathered that the said landlord had given the NPP executives in Abirem four weeks to settle all debts else he would be compelled to sell the party's assets to offset the debt.

That worrying situation, this paper established, compelled the New Abirem constituency Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Joseph Acheampong, to personally send the nomination forms to interested candidates in their various locations to fill ahead of the upcoming parliamentary primaries.

However, when Today on Friday, April 10, 2015 reached the New Abirem constituency Organiser of the NPP, Mr. Osei Yeboah, via telephone over the matter, he confirmed the action of the landlord but told this paper that the New Abirem NPP did not owe any landlord.

According to him, “the landlord locked up the party's office after the rent agreement of two-year period between him (the landlord) and the party had expired…so it is not true that we are owing any landlord… so we do not understand why our detractors should make a fuss about this.”

Mr. Yeboah explained that after the two-year rent agreement had expired, his outfit did not renew it (rent agreement) with the landlord, disclosing that the party has gotten a new office which it was making arrangement to pay.

“The issue here is that we went into a two-year agreement with the landlord and after the two years we moved out peacefully from the building without having problems with the landlord.

“…as l speak to you now (Friday, April 10, 2015) all the party items including plastic chairs and air conditioners have been taken out of the office and that we do not have any payment problem with our former landlord,” Mr. Yeboah stressed.

On the issue of picking of nomination forms by the various parliamentary aspirants as a result of the non-availability of a party office, Mr. Yeboah insisted that there was “no problem to that effect.”

Although he admitted that currently the New Abirem constituency of the NPP did not have an office, he said that was why the executives decided to take the nomination forms to the localities of the aspiring candidates to fill.

According to him, for the sake of fairness and transparency a notice was served to every member of the party who wanted to contest the party's parliamentary primaries including the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP)) for the area, Mrs. Esther Obeng-Dapaah, about how they could get the forms.

Meanwhile, Today can confirm that the New Abirem constituency would witness a fierce contest in the forthcoming NPP parliamentary primaries as records showed that six prospective candidates including Mr. Michael Sefa, Osei Frimpong, Nana Akua and the incumbent, Mrs. Obeng-Dapaah, had all picked nomination forms to contest the seat which is considered as 'safe' for the NPP in national elections.