NPP Members Bare Teeth

REPORTS from Ablekuma South Constituency of the ruling New Patriotic Party speak of trouble looming among the ranks of the membership with some aggrieved members baring their teeth against the Member of Parliament (MP), Ms. Theresa Naa Amerley Tagoe.

The Chronicle can report that the party had been in disarray since after 2000 elections, resulting in feud between the MP and sections of the party's ex-constituency executives.

Things came to a head during the recent visit of the President as part of his tour of the Greater Accra Region when the disgruntled ex-executives carried placards with inscriptions like, "Theresa, why have you allowed the police to arrest party activists", "We want a leader not a dictator", "We don't want divide and rule MP" among others.

The aggrieved members told The Chronicle that it was unfortunate that all efforts to resolve the impasse had proved futile and accused the MP of blocking all moves towards a peaceful resolution.

They stressed the need for an early resolution of the differences to bring sanity to the constituency and threatened to advise themselves, if the party executives failed to deal with the impasse.

A spokesman for the faction, Mr. Samuel Nii Collison said yesterday that the MP's divide and rule tactics could jeopardize the party's chances in next year's elections.

Mr. Collison was accused by the MP of allegedly squandering ?100,000 given to him to organize refreshment for the police during the President's visit.

He rebutted the allegations and stated that the money was given to the leader of the police band who performed at the inauguration of the Tuesday market by the president.

He called on the regional executive to investigate the matter to bring out the truth.

Mr. Collison, who is also the assembly member for Korle Gonno, accused the MP of thwarting efforts by the constituency chairman, Mr. Henry Abbey to patch up their differences.

"We are not against her and don't even have anybody in our mind to run against her. We are only trying to ensure that the right things are done and that is the main reason why we are calling on the national executive of the party to be fair in dealing with this issue.

The Chronicle has learnt that Ms. Tagoe has protested against the attitude of the former executives to the regional chairman. Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey in a letter titled "Nefarious Activities of supposed NPP members" dated August 7,2003.

She said those who lost the constituency election on December 6, 2003 and others who had lost the assembly election formed a clique to disturb the NPP activities in the constituency by organizing all sorts of 'dissident' meetings on Monday's at Mr. Collison's house.

The MP identified, Mr. John Boadu, NPP national youth wing treasurer, Mr. Bruce Appiah, a board member of GAMA, Mr. Bernard Brown, Mr. Bernard Bruce, a former constituency youth organizer and Mad. Naomi Dodoo, a member of the Ablekuma Sub-Metro as being part of the clique.

Ms. Tagoe called for the withdrawal of Mr. Bruce Appiah from GAMA board because he has been using his position to derail the party's activities. "I would advice that he should be relieved of his membership of the board so that he cannot pollute the constituency with his wicked activities", she wrote.

She accused Mr. John Boadu of being the brain behind all the allegations that had been going on in the media to peddle lies against her.

But Boadu refuted the allegations, describing them as childish and invited the regional executive to delve into the matter.

Mr. Collison said the MP's attitude had caused most vibrant and resourceful party sympathizers to coil into their shells for fear of victimization and vilification.

Ms Tagoe could not be reached for her comments.