General News of Monday, 24 July 2017

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

I wait to see who will stop me - Atik

Atik Mohammed is General Secretary of the Peoples National Congress play videoAtik Mohammed is General Secretary of the Peoples National Congress

General Secretary of the Peoples National Congress, Atik Mohammed has called the bluff of party executives calling for his suspension.

According to him, the grounds on which they are warranting the suspension is baseless. Mr. Mohammed was accused by executives of the party for bringing the party’s reputation into disrepute at its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held Saturday.

They maintained that Atik Mohammed had neglected his responsibilities as the party’s General Secretary in various instances.

Speaking to Accra-based Joy FM however, Mr. Mohammed dismissed the claims, describing them as unconstitutional. According to him, the executives headlining the calls for suspension have no constitutional backing according to the dictates of the law and therefore are flawed in their arguments.

He argued that no executive contrary to what they are suggesting can warrant his suspension on the basis that he was “inefficient”.

“Since they began their communications, have they told you which part of the law Atik Mohammed has offended which has warranted his disciplinary action subsequent to which he is being suspended.

They are just telling you NEC met and the NEC they are talking about is not the NEC we summoned because a lot of people left and Dr. Mahama brought his cohorts and they sat and said they were passing judgement on me and according to that judgement, I am inefficient and so I should be suspended, who suspends a party executive because they feel he is inefficient?”, he quizzed.

Mr. Mohammed indicated that he will respond accordingly on Monday July 24, meanwhile he says, “he will wait to see who will try to stop him from being General Secretary of the Party”. “Why did they vote for me? They don’t have that power to determine and so I’ll see who will stop me from being the General Secretary”, he said.

National Chairman of the party, Bernard Mornah however has condemned the suspension of Atik Mohammed, describing it as “injustice”.

Expressing dissappointment at the decision to indefinitely suspend Mr. Mohammed, he said the action was one which ‘was cooked in the bedroom’.

“… I told them that nobody should be held responsible for the defeat of the PNC in the elections. All responsibility should be on my chest as chairman,” he noted.

He further added that “after leaving the meeting, rather than putting the blame on me you go and suspend the general secretary… So it’s like this thing was cooked from the bedroom and brought to the headquarters.”