And Efutu too

REPORTs reaching the Chronicle indicate that all is not well with the incumbent Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency of ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Hon. Samuel Owusu-Adjei after he narrowly won the primary held last week.

He polled 23 votes against 22 by Mr. Alex Afenyo Markin, the Presiding Member of Effutu-Ewutu Senya District, now Effutu Municipality. The MP is however in trouble as plans are underway to annul the results after he decided to cast his vote which is contrary to the provisions in the party's constitution.

“He has violated Article 6(2) of the constitution of the party and because of that the elections should be declared as null and void. If we want to go by the Article 12(7) too then the election must be run again”, a leading member told this reporter. Regulation 10 of the NPP states that MPs would retain their voting rights as members of the constituency executive committee if not contesting elections, but on the other hand if the MP is seeking re-election, he or she has no right to vote.

Some of the party foot soldiers interviewed by this reporter contended that the MP had no voting right and should not have been allowed to vote. They also claimed that the election of the MP meant that the seat had been handed over to the NDC.

At a meeting held at Castle in 2004 with the President John Agyekum Kufuor where party gurus including, Mr. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, Hon. Papa Owusu-Ankomah and host of others were in attendance, it was resolved that Mr. Owusu-Agyei should serve the party for just a term and then hand over to Markins in 2008.

Mr. Harona Esseku, the former National Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Albert Ampah Korsah, Mad. Rita Asobayire, the National Women Organizer, Mr. Lord Commey, the National Organizer and others, have corroborated this fact.

Mr. Owusu-Adjei however denied there was a meeting of that sort at the castle when he appeared before the vetting committee. He contended that if even a meeting of that sort did take place, it was not documented and could not therefore be used against him.

The foot soldiers of the party in the constituency recounted how the then leaders smuggled Mr. Owusu-Adjei who was a retired civil servant on contract with the Ministry of Health to join the NPP. “We believe that it is now the time for Alex Markin to lead us. We think that the consensus held at the castle to the effect that Markin is the automatic choice for the NPP in 2008 should be adhered to. We also believe that Mr. Markin has groomed himself from being an assembly member to the Presiding Member of the Effutu Municipality,” a strong party stalwart said.

Meanwhile this paper can report that the 29-year-old politician cum businessman, whose presence in the political scene at Winneba has brought a major revival within the party, was the only NPP member that secured massive victory during the district assembly elections.