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General News of Saturday, 11 November 2023

Source: mynewsgh.com

Ashanti Regional NPP executive found serving as NDC ward chairman – NPP man alleges

NDC and NPP flags captured during the Kumawu by-elections | File photo NDC and NPP flags captured during the Kumawu by-elections | File photo

A Constituency Executive of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region has been revealed to be serving as an opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chairman for a ward in the same constituency.

The incident reported in the Fomena Constituency indicates the Treasurer of the NPP in the Fomena Constituency is also a Ward Chairperson of the opposition.

The revelation was brought to light by former Constituency Chairman of Fomena Akwasi Nti who said the last Constituency election conducted was shambolic.

“The situation is such that can you imagine the constituency Treasurer of NPP is also serving as a Ward Chairperson of the NDC? Yes, I am telling you on authority,” Akwasi Nti said on a local radio station in the Ashanti Regional capital Kumasi.

Nti said the situation is not limited to only the Treasurer but several other sensitive roles in the NPP Fomena Constituency.

He said when invited he will be able to provide proof of the allegations he is making.

In 2022, the NPP held a delegates conference in Fomena to elect new party executives in spite of an interim injunction against the exercise.

The election took place at the St. Hubert Roman Catholic Church at Akrokeri where about 356 party delegates electing their preferred candidates for all 10 constituency executive positions, including that of the chairmanship slot.

The treasurer elected at that event was one Afia Nuamah who beat her closest contender Bright Abu by a single vote.

The EC was not available to supervise the elections at Akrokerri due to a Court issue.

The election started hours before a High Court in Kumasi granted an injunction restraining the NPP from holding elections in the Constituency.

Two aggrieved members – Benjamin Ofori and Kwame Anokye – challenged the credibility of the polling station elections supervised by a committee led by former Bantama lawmaker, Henry Kwabena Kokofu.

They claim that some individuals who had automatically forfeited their party membership after sponsoring an independent candidate during the 2020 general elections were allowed to pick nomination forms to contest various positions.

“The plaintiffs aver that all efforts to compel the Defendants from disqualifying these people from contesting the elections have proven futile.

The plaintiffs have been pushed to the belief that aforementioned people can be stopped or disqualified from contesting in the aforementioned 1st Defendant only with the help of this Honorable Court”, their writ read in part.

They wanted the court to among others declare that any member of the New Patriotic Party who forfeits his membership cannot contest elections.

According to Akwasi Nti, all these culminated in the election of people whose loyalty to the party is questionable revealing a Constituency Executive of NPP is serving as Ward Chairman of the opposition NDC.