NDC Congress Hangs

Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye
An Accra high court will on Thursday, December 18, decide on the application of interlocutory injunction seeking to restrain the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from going ahead with its national delegates' congress.

The NDC had scheduled December 20 for the conference to be held in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, with over 100 people vying for a little over 20 positions in the Functional Executive Committee of the party.

But Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye, Member of Parliament (MP) for Afram Plains North and national organizer aspirant, had sued the party for what he describes as an orchestrated attempt to disqualify him from the race.

Mr. Didieye was one of six persons Johnson Asiedu Nketia, party general secretary, had alleged that they had withdrawn from the contest voluntarily.

Mr. Didieye subsequently rebutted that claim and sued the party after he had detected that his name and photograph had been left out of the national organizer ballot paper.

After attempts to get the party to reverse the decision had hit a wall, Didieye went to court to reverse what he described as unlawful disqualification of his candidature.

However, at the hearing of the case yesterday in a court presided over by Justice Anthony Oppong, lawyer for Mr. Didieyie, Bright Obeng, argued that his client was not served with the response of the defendant on time for them to study it and make an informed argument in court.

He explained that Mr. Didieye was not placing injunction on the entire congress but on the national organizer position.

Victor Kojogah Adawudu, lawyer for the NDC, claimed that the defendant's response was retrieved from the plaintiff's own filing forms, indicating that there was no intention to ambush him since the plaintiff was already abreast with the content he filed in court.

Mr. Adawudu prayed the court to deliver its ruling on the matter before December 19,2014 to enable the congress take place on December 20.

The trial judge accordingly adjourned the case to December 18, 2014.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
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