Weija NPP Aspirant Snubs Journalists

The embattled aspiring candidates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the Weija Constituency, Miss Shirley Naa Ayorkor Botchwey last Thursday, 16 September, 2004 showed how intolerable she can be.

Miss Botchwey who was being interviewed by some three Journalists, Fortune Alimi of Daily Guide, Yaw Obeng Manu of Peace FM and Edwin Arthur of The Independent refused to answer further questions during the course of the interview and virtually snubbed the three media personnel.

Apparently angered by the barrage of questions being fired by the three journalists, Miss Ayorkor Botchwey, just turned away from the Journalists, in anger without according the media men any courtesy and filed away. The three journalists were trying to find out from Miss Botchwey how she felt about the aborted congress of the NPP, which by all indications were purported to proclaim her as the NPP parliamentary candidate for the Weija Constituency.

The congress, which according to inside sources, only 40 out of the 167 delegates were invited to, was called off by the Greater Accra Regional First Vice Chairman of the NPP, Mr. R.O. Solomon, as the other uninvited delegates who got wind of the purported invitation trooped to the congress ground and threatened to disrupt congress.

But Mr. Solomon told journalists that it became evident that some of the delegates were not informed so there was the need to postpone the congress till after the party?s conference in Kumasi. He also said in view of the agitation by the delegates and the other four aspirants who did not know of the primary, the congress had to be rescheduled.

Miss Botchwey, before she abandoned the Journalists midstream in the said interview, had said that she had nothing to say about the postponement and that she would ?abide by the decision of the party.

It was when the Journalists wanted to probe further on the circumstances that led to the postponement that Miss Botchwey apparently sensing that the interview would be hot decided to abandon the Journalists and requested that they look for the Constituency Chairman to speak with.