'Akufo-Addo not behind NPP suspensions'

Nana Akufo-Addo has nothing to do with the suspension of three national executives from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), council elder Boniface Gambila has said.

“Why all the hate language [against] Nana Addo?” he asked in an interview with Nii Arday Clegg on Starr FM’s Morning Starr on Friday, December 11. The Nabdam MP said, despite the internal opposition to Mr Akufo-Addo’s bid to become president, “God will see him through” in the 2016 polls, as the former Attorney General makes a third attempt at winning the presidency.

The NPP’s National Organiser, John Boadu, is to act as General Secretary forthwith, following the indefinite suspension of substantive Secretary Kwabena Agyapong on Thursday, December 10, 2015.

Some supporters of the party were seen in jubilant mood popping champagne at the Asylum Down headquarters to celebrate the punishment handed down by the National Executive Committee (NEC) to both Mr Agyepong and Second Vice-Chairman Sammy Crabbe.

The NEC upheld a recommendation by the Disciplinary Committee to suspend the two national officers for indiscipline.

Disciplinary proceedings were started against them following a petition filed by some party members.

Both Mr Agyepong and Mr Crabbe had said in various media interviews that they still saw suspended Chairman Paul Afoko as the legitimate chairman of the party, despite a decision by the NEC to suspend the first-ever elected northern chairman indefinitely for allegedly working against the interests of the NPP and its flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo.

While Mr Agyepong is said to have shown some level of remorse and cooperated with the leadership of the party as far as the disciplinary hearings were concerned, Mr Crabbe did not accord the party leadership that respect.

It had been recommended by the Disciplinary Committee that Mr Agyepong be suspended for 15 months, but the NEC decided to hand him an indefinite suspension, just as Mr Crabbe and Mr Afoko. The decision was a unanimous one.

Mr Afoko, Mr Agyepong, and Mr Crabbe are all seen in the party as belonging to the Kufuor/Alan faction. Their leadership of the party has been fraught with suspicion since they took office in April last year. Mr Boadu becomes the second national executive of the NPP to step into an acting position above him. First National Vice-Chairman Freddie Blay has been acting as chairman since the suspension of Mr Afoko some two months ago.