Quenching the blazing fire in Gt. Accra NPP Party

The National secretariat of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will sit today to deliberate on the debilitating matters and controversies that have hit the party in the Greater Accra Region in recent times.

The meeting would be to determine the fate of Nana Akomea, Member of Parliament (MP) for Okaikoi South and Madam Theresa Tagoe, MP for Ablekuma South who were recently suspended by the regional leadership of the party through a resolution.

The resolution suspending the two legislators, additionally called on the president to dismiss the latter as deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister.

General Secretary of the party, Nana Ohene Ntow yesterday confirmed that the leadership of the party would be sitting today to deliberate on matters affecting the party, including the problems in the Greater Accra Region.

Nana Ntow said the meeting is going to be a closed-door one and was therefore not prepared to disclose the specifics of what would be discussed at the meeting. “I can only talk about what would be discussed at the meeting after we have finished the meeting,” he said.

Polling station leaders of the party in the Ablekuma South Constituency have however hinted that they would not comply with any decision that would be taken by the leadership of the party on the problems in that constituency if they happen not to be satisfied with such a decision.

According to them, they would not allow party members who have led a group of macho men to inflict wounds on them for no apparent reason to be given the opportunity to continue to lead the constituency.

The aggrieved party members, who spoke to this paper in the wake of a petition from the constituency chairmen demanding the relieve of Hon. Theresa Naa Amerley Tagoe, of her position as a deputy Regional Minister in addition to her suspension from attending constituency and regional executive meetings, expressed misgivings about the delay on the part of the regional leadership to take action on their resolution.

Mr. Oromasis Nii Abbey, Mr. Theophilus Tetteh and Fred Lamptey all polling station chairmen within the constituency were upset about the delays by the regional executives in taking a decision on some party members who inflicted wounds on others, thereby bringing the name of the party into disrepute.

“As law abiding citizens, we shall wait for the outcome of the meeting of the national executives. It is a shameful act to organize thugs to beat the party members and if national, does not deal with this matter genuinely, members would find a way of revenging. We don't feel secured with executives who could organize thugs to beat us after their mismanagement,” Mr. Tetteh in the company of his colleagues, said.

“The case is before the national executives after the president had referred the matter to them. I would not like to make any comment for now, it would amount to prejudicing the case,” the MP for the constituency said when she was contacted for her comments on the deevelopments.

Pushed further about the supposed decision by the regional executives that she should be relieved of her post, the 63-year-old legislator intoned, “I have said no comment but if they say they would like to sack me, I am here, they should come and sack me.”

The Ablekuma South problems started when 76 polling station chairmen out of the total 139 in the constituency resolved that due to what they termed mismanagement by the constituency executives, they should be sacked.

In their resolution, they averred that, “We the polling Station Chairmen (Foot Soldiers) of Ablekuma South Constituency have passed a vote of no confidence in the entire Ablekuma South Constituency Executive Committee, since the constituency executive committee under Article 2 section 1-3 have abused our rights seriously.”

According to them, their decision was taken in order to bring back the glorious days and win massively the 2008 election and subsequent District Assembly Elections.

The resolution further alleged that, the entire executives had failed to render what they termed as “'a transparent account,” on the disbursement of ¢100million contrary to Article 4 section 7 (a), noting that as a result, their conduct was unbecoming of executives, into whose hands the party rests and that that act it was tantamount to misconduct.

Stating that the executives failed to set up a Constituency Finance Committee as stipulated in Article 6 section 5 of the constitution, the 76 polling station chairmen claimed that instead of the party executives concentrating on how to organize the party from the various polling stations for the NPP to win most of the District Assembly elections, they rather embarked upon chasing Presidential aspirants, begging for monies and favours for themselves.

“They left the constituency and looked on, while the opposition parties registered under-aged voters and others from other Constituencies. This resulted in the poor performance of the NPP members in the District Assembly elections,” they pointed out.

According to them the gift of corn mill and cash of ¢10m accompanying it had vanished.

Cataloguing a lot of allegations against the incumbent executives, the aggrieved party members said, “They had been given School-feeding programmes, but they never employed any of the NPP women from the constituency, who worked hard for the success of the Party. The women are so disillusioned and disappointed in the party now.”

Although this resolution was kept away from the media because of its contents, the unfolding events forced the party members to give copies to this paper.

“As a result of all these inefficiencies on the part of the executives, we the undersigned, are calling for their immediate removal from office, by invoking Article 10 of the NPP Constitution, under the title “removal of elected officers.”

Mr. Oromasis Abbey told this paper that it was unfortunate that the regional executives of the party were trying to accuse the MP as being behind their decision.
According to him the issues are between the polling station chairmen and the executives, not the MP.

Mr. William Akakpo, the constituency chairman, has denied all the allegations, stating that it does not hold water. “All that they are saying are not true. It does not hold water. I have mot received any ¢100m. What is there for me to mismanage?” he asked.

According to him, it was unfortunate that some party members were bent on destroying the image of the party.

Mr. Akakpo noted that if the aggrieved party members had been attending general meetings where explanations were offered on the issues they were raising, they would have understood the issues better, “rather than making unmerited accusations.”