Addison attacks Kwabena Agyapong

Lawyer Philip Addison is blaming the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for shuttering his parliamentary ambition, at least for now, by skewing the party’s Korle Klottey primary towards a particular candidate.

He said looking at the time frame and the circumstances with which the Korle Klottey parliamentary primary was held, it was obvious Kwabena Agyepong’s doing was to the detriment of the other candidates aside Nii Noi Nortey, the eventual winner of the race.

“Well unfortunately so. It looks like everything has been skewed for one candidate and therefore there was no way we would have taken part … it would have been a fuss because the results would have been known because the way things were handled it was clear that a certain result was desired. That is why we decided to boycott it,” he noted in an interview with Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.3 FM Monday.

He added “I am disappointed that a handful of people have hijacked the party apparatus, and they are doing their own thing to the detriment of the party and now giving the party a bad name. Like the General Secretary – he doesn’t listen to anybody. He is doing a one man show – he is doing everything by himself as if he is a running a sole proprietorship. That is what is happening in our party today.”

According to him, following the dismissal of an injunction case brought before the Accra High Court, the party had a meeting on Friday, July 31, 2015, where they agreed to have the election on August 8, 2015.

But to his surprise, on the evening of that Friday, the General Secretary of the elephant family, Kwabena Agyepong issued a statement directing the election to be held on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

“ We had a meeting on Friday where we agreed on a date for the election. We agreed on the modalities – how accreditation is going to be handled – who is going to handle it and how it is going to be given to the candidates and delegates – all these things were discussed. Somehow, we finished this meeting about 2pm on Friday. Then Friday evening I hear a statement from the General Secretary that the election should come on the August 2, 2015 instead of the 8 that we have agreed on. Subsequently, a letter also comes from the Constituency election committee that the election should not come on the 2nd but rather 8th.”

“This was quite confusing. Under the circumstances, at least the General Secretary will invite all of us. No invitation was extended to us. All the processes we were not involved – accreditation for our polling agents, nothing. All these things had been done by supporters of one candidate. Now, how do you go into an election like this?”

Mr. Addison polled 22 out of the 434 total valid cast in Sunday’s election that saw his main competitor, Nii Noi Nortey winning by wider margin of 393 votes. A third candidate, Nii Adjei Tawiah polled 19 votes. About 368 delegates did not vote in the election that was characterized with violence.

Lawyer Addison commenting further told Banson that the result was not a true reflection of the mandate of the people because he boycotted it at last hour after sensing that there was no fairness and level playing field in the contest.