Esseku condemns NPP executives

An elder of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Harona Esseku has chastised sections of the executives of the party for busing supporters to the Kotoka International Airport to welcome Nana Akufo-Addo, the 2008 presidential candidate of the party from his European tour.

“Nana Addo's supporters can go and meet him alright, but it is wrong for an announcement to be made in the name of the executives of the party. Anybody in the party can call on supporters to go and meet Nana Addo and there is nothing wrong with that," he stressed.

Speaking to the Chronicle in an interview, Mr. Esseku said he has been told that the National Organizer of the party made the announcement. He said, if it established that the executives were behind the busing of the supporters, then they must be condemned.

He said in the Constitution of the party, the Chairman is always the leader and not the flagbearer. He continued that the party's constitution abhors the use of the word leader, since the party was headed by the Chairman at all times, and also even when the sitting President belongs to the party, adding that the party is distinct from the government.

The one time chairman of the party said the idea was that the party could criticize the President internally if it becomes necessary. He cleared the notion that there was a division in the party, insisting that it was a misconception for people to believe that there was any such division.

He said in January, the party sent letters to all the constituencies to compile what they believe went wrong for the party's defeat in the 2008 elections, and to forward them all to the head office by March 15, this year.

"A lot of feedback from these letters is already in the head office and they are being put together and the Secretariat is putting them together," he noted.

Mr. Esseku said some of the members were calling for an early date for the presidential elections, reiterating the concern for amendment to their constitution.

He noted that at their National Annual Delegates Conference in May, this year, they would look at the amendment of the constitution and all the proposals that would emerge from all the constituencies.