NPP waits for Interpol over Paul Afoko

The Vetting Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is bracing up to determine the fate of one of its National Chairman aspirants, Paul Afoko, sometime this week, as it awaits a report from INTERPOL, DAILY GUIDE has learnt.

Mr Afoko’s vetting was suspended following a petition received by the party’s Vetting Committee chaired by C.K. Tedam, with regard to alleged drug-related issues.

The Committee, DAILY GUIDE learnt, fired a correspondence to the INTERPOL at the Police Headquarters to collaborate with their British counterparts to get to the bottom of the allegation.

Even though the name of the petitioner had been kept under wraps, the supposed issue bordered on narcotic drugs, and that the aspirant was an inmate of a rehabilitation centre – an allegation Mr Afoko had since denied.

But DAILY GUIDE sources said the Committee was only waiting for a report from the INTERPOL, an intergovernmental organization, facilitating international police cooperation.

The Committee was said to have formally written to the local office of INTERPOL seeking to verify some information on Mr Afoko which were contained in the controversial petition, sometime last week.

The INTERPOL office assured the Committee of its commitment to assisting in the investigations and therefore promised to furnish it with the needed information.

Sources at the NPP headquarters said a week after the request, and the local office of INTERPOL was yet to furnish the Committee with a report, leading to all sorts of speculations among party members.

This was said to have compelled the Committee to write a reminder to the INTERPOL yesterday.

Even before the arrival of the report, members of the Committee are expected to meet today Tuesday and tomorrow Wednesday over the issue which is becoming a source of bother to Mr. Afoko and his supporters.

Leaked Tape

Last week, supporters of Mr Afoko apprehended a certain Michael Kofi Twum-Boafo for allegedly spreading malicious information about him on Facebook, a social media network.

In a facebook comment, Twum-Boafo was said to have claimed that he lived in the United Kingdom for over 21 years and insisted he could vividly recollect that the aspirant had a criminal record with an imprisonment.

However, he recanted the statement after he was accosted, pleading for forgiveness.

Mr Twum-Boafo had denied the allegation that he was the source of the petition in a follow-up interview with DAILY GUIDE as claimed by supporters of the embattled chairmanship aspirants.

The incident which happened at the NPP headquarters generated a furore, with an intervention from officers of the party.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that, the rowdy scene attracted the attention of Perry Okudzeto and Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, NPP acting Communications Director and Director of Elections respectively.

The two party leaders swiftly intervened and directed Mr. Twum-Boafo to immediately remove the post on facebook and apologize to Paul Afoko.

That intervention, with a telephone conversation with Afoko, was recorded and played on radio stations.

The leaked 22-minute recording of a telephone conversation revealed that Perry Okudzeto personally called to apologize to Mr. Afoko for the incident and the recording subsequently found its way to the airwaves with some pointing accusing fingers at Mr Afoko for recording it and giving it to Adakabre of Neat FM.

Paul Afoko denied leaking the tape.