NPP suspensions: Structures working – Ayisi Boateng

Kwabena Agyepong[R] and Sammy Crabbe

A member of the Council of Elders of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Ayisi Boateng, has said the party’s decision to suspend general secretary Kwabena Agyepong and second vice-chairman Sammy Crabbe shows that party structures are working.

Mr. Boateng told Ekow Mensah-Shalders on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class 91.3fm Friday December 11, 2015, that: “I think structures are working. It’s a way of strengthening the structures of the party, so, we should allow the structures to work”.

“Obama came to Ghana and said institutions must be strengthened and political parties have structures, we need to strengthen the structures to work as much as possible”.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NPP Thursday December 10, 2015, upheld a recommendation by the Disciplinary Committee to suspend General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong and the second Vice-Chairman, Sammy Crabbe, indefinitely.

Disciplinary proceedings were started against the two politicians following a petition filed by some party members.

Both Mr Agyepong and Mr Crabbe had said in various media interviews that they still saw suspended Chairman Paul Afoko as the legitimate chairman of the party despite a decision by NEC to suspend the first-ever elected northern chairman indefinitely for allegedly working against the interest of the NPP and its flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo.

While Mr Agyepong is said to have shown some level of remorse and cooperated with the leadership of the party as far as the disciplinary hearings were concerned, Mr Crabbe did not accord the party leadership that respect.

It had been recommended by the Disciplinary Committee that Mr Agyepong be suspended for 15 months but the NEC decided to hand him an indefinite suspension, just as Mr Crabbe and Mr Afoko. The decision was a unanimous one.

Mr Afoko, Mr Agyepong, and Mr Crabbe are all seen in the party as belonging to the Kufuor/Alan faction. Their leadership has been fraught with suspicion since they took office in April last year.