We’ll punish party youth for protesting suspensions – CPP

The Communications Director of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Issifu Kadiri Abdul Rauf, has said they are considering moves of punishing some youth who picketed at their head office on Monday in protest of recent suspensions in the party.

“I believe that they will actually receive the severest punishment…we are not going to allow anybody to run an agenda or interest which is contrary to the supreme and strategic interest of the party to bring disrepute of the party's name,” he added.

The CPP suspended its National Youth Organizer, Ernesto Yeboah and General Secretary, Nii Armah Akomfrah for publicly contradicting the party's flagbearer, Ivor Greenstreet, over President John Mahama's Ford Expedition saga.

Leadership of the CPP later clarified that the two were suspended for  bringing the party's name into disrepute.

However, some youth of the CPP picketed at the party’s headquarters on Monday demanding the reinstatement of the suspended leaders.

But speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Rauf described the protesters as “rebels” adding that the party hierarchy has every intention of punishing them severely for their actions.

He argued that his use of the word rebel was the “best qualification for them [the protesting youth].”

“hey are rebellious and if you want, you can even call them rebels. They are internal rebels,” he added.

Mr. Rauf asserted that the youth were trying to impose an agenda contrary to the CPP's strategy and bringing the party's name into disrepute hence the need for punishment.

Rift in the CPP
Mr. Rauf's comments come in the wake of the rift emerging between the CPP hierarchy and youth league of the party following the suspension of the Youth Organiser, Ernesto Yeboah and the party’s General Secretary, Nii Armah Akronfah, after they publicly contradicted comments made by the party's flagbearer, Ivor Kobina Greenstreet.

The contradictions revolved around President John Mahama's receipt of the widely criticised Ford gift received from a Burkinabe contractor which the CPP youth view as an act of corruption as expressed in their petition to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

CPP will not be forced into taking stance
Mr. Rauf further insisted that his party will not be pressured into condemning President John Mahama's receipt of the widely criticised $100,000 Ford gift received from a Burkinabe contractor.

“We don't need to state our position on every issue. It is not every issue in this country that happens that every party must take their position on,” he said

He further retorted that the CPP had always been on the right side of the fight against corruption.

“When CHRAJ wanted to validate the national anti-corruption action plan, none of the political parties showed their face. It was only the Convention People's Party that went… and we were asked to go by no other person than the same Ivor Kobina Greenstreet,” he recounted as an example.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana