Confusion rocks Shama NDC; executives want Emelia Arthur disqualified

The entire executives of the National Democratic Congress in the Shama Constituency are calling on the party's national executives to stop the Deputy Western Regional Minister Madam Emelia Arthur from contesting in the upcoming parliamentary primaries.

According to them, she is not a card-bearing member of the party and is only trying to smuggle her way through with the support of some influential individuals.

Speaking at a news conference, the constituency executives warned that any attempt to impose the former Shama DCE will be “fiercely resisted”.

They claim that aside not being a card bearing member, she still holds allegiance to her mother party the Nation Reform Party (RFP), on whose ticket she once contested the Shama seat. They disclosed that she had not resigned from the NRP and still holds her position as the Deputy General Secretary.

They said Madam Emelia Arthur had no relationship with constituency executives during her tenure as the Shama DCE. According to Mr. John Amakye, the assistant Secretary of the Constituency, although they attempted to stop her from going through the vetting, some executives at the regional and national level allowed her to go through clandestinely.

She is also accused of picking the nomination forms clandestinely and filling it in a fraudulent manner with some fake card-numbers of supposed party members who endorsed her forms.

“At the Sefwi Wiaso vetting of parliamentary aspirants in constituencies for sitting MPs, it was evidently made clear that Miss Emelia Arthur is not an NDC member. If she claims to be an NDC member, why was she not allowed to vote at the recent national Congress in Sunyani since she is a Deputy Regional Minister? Her alleged acquisition of a NDC membership card in 2009 is fraudulent [because] on March 2nd, speaking under oath in Parliament during her vetting for the Deputy Regional Minister for the Western Region, she said she is not an NDC member. [Refer to the] Parliamentary Hansard of 29th March),” Mr Amakye said.

He believes the Deputy Regional Minister was dishonest when she claimed to have gotten her membership card in 2009, only for her to turn around to inform Parliament's Vetting Committee in 2011 that she was not a card-bearing member of the NDC.

“Her integrity as a Deputy Regional Minister is even questionable because the NDC parliamentary primary form that she purchased was done clandestinely. The said form was filled fictitiously and the same form was submitted mischievously” he noted.

The incumbent MP, Hon. Gilbert Essilfie, had raised similar issues about Madam Arthur's candidature. However, the Deputy Regional Minister has told Maxx News she would not comment on the latest development. The constituency executives have threatened to resign if Madam Arthur's candidature is approved.

“Failure of national executives in Accra who have been pushing her, advising and encouraging her to go ahead with her ambition and disrespect for the party structure and discipline, shall be met with the strongest resistance with its attendant consequences for the party in the Constituency,” Mr Amakye warned, adding, “We call on the national executives to remember the oath they took to protect and respect the party's Constitution, to respect the rules and regulations covering parliamentary primaries and to protect the supreme interest of the party. If the above is not respected and adhered to and Emelia Arthur is confirmed, the Constituency executives shall resign enbloc”.

Madam Emelia Arthur is faced with such a disapproval for the second time. Before she became the DCE for Shama, she was twice rejected by Assembly members.

Story by Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/Radio Maxx/Takoradi