NPP will lose Nsawam Adoagyiri seat if Annoh-Dompreh goes unopposed – Group warns

A group calling itself Delegates against Unopposed in the Nsawam Adoagyiri Constituency of the Eastern Region is kicking against any move by the leadership of the party in the region to allow the incumbent Member of Parliament Frank Annoh Dompreh to run unopposed.

Clad in white with red headbands, the group, at a press conference on Monday, argued that the dream of the party to break the eight may not see the light of day if a free and fair contest is not allowed for all well-meaning members of the party.

The convenor of the group, Abrokwa Abraham Asiamah, in an interview with Citi News after addressing the press, said the group would fiercely resist any move by the leadership of the party not to allow a fair playing ground in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Mr. Asiamah further threatened that the majority of the members of the party in the constituency would boycott the 2024 general elections if the incumbent MP was allowed to contest unopposed.

READ THE FULL STATEMENT FROM THE GROUP BELOW

PRESS CONFERENCE BY NPP POLLING STATION EXECUTIVES IN NSAWAM ADOAGYIRI AGAINST THE ORGANISATION OF EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS IN DECEMBER 2023

Distinguished members of the media, ladies and gentlemen

We have called you here today to share with you some issues happening in the Nsawam Adoagyiri constituency, for which all attempts to get the leadership of the constituency to halt them have proven fruitless. We have made several calls to regional executives, but nothing has happened, and Frank Annoh Dompreh and his assigns are still on their path to send the NPP into opposition, making the slogan Break the 8 useless.

Since last year, the Member of Parliament has been talking about contesting unopposed in the parliamentary primaries of the New Patriotic Party. He printed t-shirts, and it became a mantra in the constituency. All along, we thought it was just a ploy to discourage others from contesting; little did we know that he had a clandestine motive to force delegates to accept such an undemocratic practice.

Since the beginning of the year, those of us who have spoken against the unopposed have been tagged as enemies of the MP. He went as far as causing the suspension of eight delegates after severely insulting and threatening them. In addition, during the Presidential Primaries of the NPP, which saw H.E. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia come out victorious, Frank Annoh Dompreh pocketed 400 cedi of 66 delegates given to him by Dr. Bawumia. Up to today, he has still not given the money to these 66 delegates.

Today, we have met here to expose another diabolical attempt by the incumbent MP to perpetuate himself on us.

For some weeks now, the MP and his associates have been moving from electoral areas with a sheet of paper titled.

“Details of Electoral Area Coordinators and Polling Station Executives Calling for an Extraordinary Congress in December 2023”

Our intelligence within the Constituency Executive Committee informed us that on November 12, 2023, at around 4:30 p.m., the Constituency Chairman, who had received an auctioned Mercedes Benz from the MP, called a meeting of the Constituency Executive Committee to inform them that they had received a request for an Extra Ordinary Delegates Congress from about 400 polling station executives and area coordinators. He is therefore putting it before them for their approval to enable him to send it to the Regional Executive Committee for concurrent approval to enable them to organise such an event in the first week of December 2023.

Ladies and gentlemen, though he mentioned 400 polling station executives, he only mentioned the names of five polling station executives and area coordinators to the members of the Constituency Executive Committee. The chairman did not provide the details of the so-called 400 delegates to members of the constituency executive committee. The Constituency Executive Committee members, half of whom are against the practice, were unfortunately quite at the meeting because they were all afraid of the intimidation that would be meted out to them if they spoke against what was going on.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, our intelligence at the Constituency Office indicates that some documents have been sent to the Regional Office of the NPP with some signatures of polling station executives, indicating that these individuals are calling for this extraordinary congress, whose intention is to lay a motion to approve Hon. Frank Annoh Dompreh to contest unopposed in Nsawam Adoagyiri.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we wish to inform the Regional Executive Committee and the National Executive Council of the NPP that what Frank Annoh-Dompreh and his agents have submitted to the Regional Executive Committee is fake and should be disregarded. Some delegates of Nsawam Adoagyiri were deceived into signing the document as part of acknowledging the receipt of some agriculture input received recently. Other signatures were completely made up.

The assigns behind this have perpetuated fraud by sitting in their houses, writing the names of polling station executives, and signing against the names of some of the delegates without their knowledge.

We wish to inform the leadership of the NPP in the Eastern Region and the National Executive Council to throw away the purported document emanating from the Nsawam Adoagyiri Constituency. It is fictitious and without any merit.

We also want to remind Frank Annoh-Dompreh and his assigns that their action is against the “Guidelines for the Conduct of Parliamentary Elections'' issued by the National Executive Council. It is a gross disrespect to the national leadership of the NPP and a gross insubordination to the leader of the party, His Excellency, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

We want to use this opportunity to let Ghanaians and the leadership of the NPP know that Frank Annoh-Dompreh and his associates have destroyed the NPP in the constituency and that if he is not contested and a new leadership emerges to represent the party on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party, we will lose the seat to the NDC in 2024. Here are the reasons:

1. The NDC currently controls the Nsawam Adoagyiri Municipal Assembly. The NDC has more Assembly members than the NPP, hence our inability to elect a presiding member. The Nsawam Adoagyiri Municipal Assembly is currently without a presiding member. The NDC currently has 15 as opposed to 13 for the NPP.

2. The NDC has gained more votes than the NPP in the parliamentary primaries over the last few years. In the year 2016, the NPP recorded 27,159 votes. This was increased by 7269 in 2020 to 34,428. In the same period, NDC, which recorded 18,888 votes in 2016, increased its votes by 12,298 to 31,186 in 2020. Any serious politician will tell you that if you present the same NPP candidate who is the direct cause of the abysmal performance of the party, you are automatically going to lose the seat. It must be noted that H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana, who visited Nsawam only once in the 2020 elections, won more votes than Frank Annoh-Dompreh.

Beside the numbers above, other poor management of the affairs of the party in the constituency requires fresh leadership, hence our quest to ensure that there are elections in this constituency. These include.

1. Poor running of the constituency office by the MP. In 2022, the chairman of the party had to take money from someone to pay for the constituency office rent to prevent eviction by the Landlord.

2. After 12 years of Frank Annoh-Dompreh, NPP still rents a space to use as a constituency office. Meanwhile, over the same period, the MP has built a mansion for himself at Dobro, while we continue to rent an old building as a constituency office.

3. There is no welfare scheme for polling station executives.

4. Intimidation, blackmail, threats, and insulting of polling station executives by Frank Annoh-Dompreh. The use of threats and intimidation is the norm in Nsawam Adoagyiri. At every opportunity, the MP publicly calls out and humiliates executives at meetings. In this year alone, 8 Polling Station Executives were suspended without hearing. It had to take the action of the indefatigable Eastern Regional Chairman to cause the issuance of a statement to reinstate these officers to enable them vote in the Presidential Primaries.

5. There has been no training or orientation for polling station executives over the almost 12 years Dompreh have been in power. We have been reduced to voting machines and recipients of peanuts from the MP at his whims and caprices.

6. Unequal distribution of opportunities. Our MP recently told all of us that he received 250 slot to get people into various sectors for employment. As of today, we do not know who received these slots. We, the polling station executives, don't matter to him on employment issues. Unless you go to his house to gossip or follow him to sing his praises, you don't matter.

These and many other issues affecting the party’s operationalization in Nsawam Adoagyiri require urgent leadership change to bring in the needed excitement, energy, and resourcefulness for the growth of the party.

We are at this press conference sending a clear message to Frank Annoh-Dompreh and his associates to stop the process they have initiated to organise the so-called Extraordinary Delegates Congress.

We also want to say unequivocally that we stand with the General Secretary of the NPP, Lawyer Justin Kodua, on his statement to allow contests in all constituencies in the country without any exception and that we are appealing to him to ignore the Electoral Area Coordinators who met him at a recent funeral he attended in the constituency and were begging him to allow Frank Annoh-Dompreh to go unopposed. General, the one who spoke on behalf of the Area Coordinators has been promised a visa to the UK by Frank Annoh-Dompreh. Ignore him.

We, the delegates of Nsawam Adoagyiri, want an open contest in the constituency.

Thank you, Read by Adarkwa Abraham Asamoah Youth Organiser, R/C Girls B Amoakro 1 Polling Station

Tel : 0249878036 For interviews contact below 1. Albert Aboagyre Tannor Area Coordinator – Kojo Electora Area Tel: 0244407646 2. Ernest Amoako Area Coordinator – Ahodjo Electora Area Tel: 0265712344 3. Richard Afram Organiser – L/A Primary ankwa Dobro 1 Tel: 0597205452 4. George Asirifi Chairman: Ankwa Dobro Primary 2 Tel: 0243985981 5. Kwame Ayisi Polling Station Chairman, DJANKROM East Tel: +233 24 440 6142