Doe Adjoho Kicked Out

... Josiah Aryeh described as confusionist The dream of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Avenor-Ave, in the Volta Region, Mr. Edward Doe Adjaho, to have a fourth tenure, has vanished into the thin air, reports reaching The Chronicle have indicated. The closing of the Parliamentary door to Mr. Adjaho, who doubles as the Minority Chief Whip, was as a result of his inability to attend both the vetting of aspirants and the congress to elect a candidate for the December elections.

Party members, this paper learnt, accused the MP of collaborating with the National Executive Committee (NEC) to create confusion by deliberately postponing both the branch auditing and conducting of the primary.

The 150 delegates, therefore, unanimously resolved to give the baton to Mr. Dominic Seth Aglagoh when they went ahead to hold the constituency congress on July 4 despite postponement by the NEC.

“We the undersigned delegates from the various branches of the Avenor-Ave NDC constituency have resolved and hereby resolve that we are fed up and exasperated over the frequent postponements of our NDC branch audits and primary to elect our aspiring Parliamentarian.

“For that matter, we undersigned delegates have resolved on this July 4, 2004 that we will not entertain any primary anymore. We have with one accord and overwhelmingly proclaimed Mr. Seth Dominic Aglagoh as our parliamentary candidate for the December general election,” the delegates said.

But in a press release signed by party general secretary, Dr. Josiah Aryeh, the NEC said the constituency primaries supposedly organized at Avenor-Ave and Lower Manya this month had been nullified.

It said the national secretariat had put in place arrangements for the organization of proper primaries in these constituencies, adding that it should be noted that primaries conducted outside the party's guidelines and without the involvement of the NEC would be nullified.

Citing various reasons for their proclamation, the delegates accused the NEC of deliberately collaborating with the MP to fuel problems in the constituency.

They pointed out that their reason to allow Mr. Aglagoh to replace Mr. Adjaho was that the MP had lost touch with the executives and the electorate in the constituency.

“We have absolutely lost confidence in both the National and Regional executives for frustrating us in our desire to hold primaries. We have lost faith in Hon. Doe Adjaho. We do not want him to represent us in parliament anymore. We shall not countenance his presence in our constituency anymore. He has failed us.

“We will also want to place on record that the Hon. Doe Adjaho instructed his supporters to use his vehicle - a dark green Nissan Patrol - to threaten us in our villages by daring us to show up for the primaries.”

According to the delegates, Mr. Adzaho had refused to release the constituency vehicle despite, the flag bearer's instruction that the vehicle in his custody should be released for the party work.

The resolution pointed out that Mr. Doe Adjaho, after contradicting the party's constitution for not subjecting himself to vetting, had made various complaints to the national secretariat about the branch auditing but on three consecutive times he had refused to make himself available.

According to them the letter at the eleventh hour to restrain them from conducting the primary, was an attempt by the party general secretary and the MP to prevent them from doing the right thing.

The delegates asked Mr. Adjaho to take the decision in good faith since going to Parliament was not the answer to the problems facing the NDC. They asked Dr. Aryeh also to refrain from creating “unnecessary tension” among the rank and file of the party.

They said Dr. Aryeh was aware of the impending primary on the June 4, this year but deliberately sabotaged it by writing a letter on June 3, to restrain them from conducting it after they had made all preparations.