Chairman Aspirant of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Afoko, has described as “frivolous”, an anonymous petition filed against his Candidature.

In an exclusive interview with XYZ News on Friday, Mr Afoko said the party has too much at stake to be wasting time over unimportant issues.

“What is facing us in 2016 is like a juggernaut. The opposition that is coming at us is a juggernaut. We cannot waste time on anything else other than get this party ready…if we wait now, and we keep on spending more time on frivolous things like an anonymous petition, then what are we doing?”

The NPP’s Elections and Vetting Committee has put Mr. Afoko’s candidature on hold till next week over the anonymous petition filed against him.

The petition holds that Mr. Afoko’s candidature should be shot down because he was detained at the Usher fort prison for inciting political resistance in 1982.

Following the suspension of his vetting, a group calling itself Youth For Afoko (YOFA) has warned the party’s Elections and Vetting Committee against disqualifying its preferred candidate on a “defective” petition.

It warned that yanking Mr. Afoko out of the race will amount to entrenching the perception that the NPP is averse to non-Akans.

“Paul Afoko has earned his position in the party by merit and attempting to cut-short his dream of chairing this great tradition on unmeritorious grounds frustrates the effort of millions of Northerners in the party and whispers to them how insecure their future is in the party,” it argued.

Mr. Afoko is contesting the incumbent Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, first Vice Chairman Fred Oware and twice-failed Aspirant Stephen Ntim in the party’s April 12, 2014 Annual National.