Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo NRP react to statement

Kumasi, July 19, GNA - The Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regional branches of the National Reform Party (NRP) have described the statement attributed to Kyeretwie Opoku, General Secretary of the party, that it would not form any electoral alliance with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as unfortunate.

A statement issued in Kumasi on Monday and signed by Opanin Kwame Afreh Junior, Ashanti Regional Chairman and Mr Kwame Takyi Appiah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Co-ordinator of the party in reaction to the General Secretary's statement, said the NRP had not met on such an issue.

They therefore declared the General Secretary's statement to be his own idea and therefore to no effect.

''In a democratic dispensation such as ours, the national congress of a political party has the mandate to take such decisions after careful deliberations.''

"It is evidently clear that the issuance of such a statement is improper because no party executive at the various levels has been consulted on the issue".

The statement said since Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions constituted a formidable force in the NRP set up, it will be suicidal for the party as a whole to take decisions without consulting these regions.

"It is in this wise that we consider the decision to back or support the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or Convention People's Party (CPP) as very absurd in the sense that the conditions that led to the breakaway from the NDC and the formation of the NRP still persist."

The statement said the sudden u-turn of the General Secretary was not only surprising but also worrying since there was the tendency that the party would be plunged into disunity.

It therefore sounded a note of caution to the national executive of the party that the NRP would be spelling its own doom if they neglected Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo in matters, which border on crucial issues such as this.

The statement challenged Kyeretwie Opoku to come out with an explanation to justify why the NRP should support the NDC or CPP and not the NPP, adding that until this explanation, the party should know that it would not succeed in its plans to sideline party executives at the regional level in taking decisions that were collectively binding on the party as a whole.

"We would not allow ourselves to be used by politicians for their selfish ends. We also want to state that we shall respond to Kyeretwie Opoku's utterances at the appropriate time.''