Afoko Should Bury His Pride And Initiate Moves For Reconciliation

After the long winding legal banter between the suspended National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Afoko and the opposition party, the dust has finally settled.

The Accra Human Rights Court yesterday dismissed the case brought before it by Mr. Afoko, challenging the legality of his suspension.

In October 2015, the Disciplinary Committee of the NPP recommended that Mr Afoko should be suspended indefinitely from the party, following a petition filed by two NPP members.

The Disciplinary Committee's recommendation was unanimously endorsed by the NPP National Executive Committee and later adopted by the National Council, which is the second highest decision making body of the party, after congress.

Mr. Freddie Blay, the first vice chairman of the party, was made to act in his stead, but the embattled National Chairman rejected the reasons for his suspension and subsequently sued the party for taking such an action against him.

Kwabena Agyepong and Sammy Crabbe, General Secretary and Second vice Chairman respectively, who themselves were later suspended, contested the procedure used in suspending Mr. Afoko.

The suspended NPP National Chairman on December 7, 2015, dragged the party to court and accused the NPP of not going through the right processes in suspending him.

He also challenged the capacity of one of the members of the disciplinary committee, Gifty Kusi, who sat on the issue and recommended his suspension.

Giving its judgment, the court, presided over by Justice Anthony Yeboah, said the NPP’s National Executive Committee acted lawfully by adopting the recommendations of the Disciplinary Committee of the party to suspend Paul Afoko.

But, indications are that, the suspended National Chairman of the NPP, even though has accepted the decision of the court in dismissing the case, still has serious reservations about the verdict.

Mr Afoko said in a statement that his lawyers are carefully studying the judgment and at the appropriate time they would launch an appeal against the decision.

It is worthy to note that while all these back and forth were still ongoing, the suspended General Secretary of the party, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong decided to stay quiet and study the environment or perhaps cast his burden onto the good Lord for his intervention.

Even when they were going to and from the court, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong kept a low profile, hoping that a miracle was going to come from Macedonia to help him out of his predicament.

It is this humble example of the suspended General Secretary that The Chronicle is calling on Paul Afoko to emulate and rescind his decision to appeal against the case.

From the word go, many people, including members of both the NPP and National Democratic Congress (NDC), political commentators and other individuals chastised Mr Afoko for going too far, by dragging the party to court.

Although he has the constitutional rights to appeal against the case and if possible continue to the Supreme Court to seek redress, it is abundantly clear to The Chronicle that the scale of justice, as far as this case is concerned, may not tilt in his favour.

As a member of the elephant family, at this point in time, when all the odds point to a likely victory in the upcoming general elections, he should bury his pride and initiate moves to reconcile with his brethren, so that together they can work to win power for the party.

A stitch in time saves nine.