Ten out of 18 Electoral Area Coordinators of the New Patriotic Party in the Akim Oda Constituency in the Eastern Region are appealing to the National Executive Committee of the party to reinstate them after being suspended by the Regional Executives.
The Coordinators were suspended over a petition they filed against the Constituency Chairman, Alhaji Awudu Issaka for openly campaigning for incumbent MP, William Agyapong Quaitoo, on 23rd February, 2020.
The petition sought to address the conduct of the constituency chairman who is a member of the Constituency Parliamentary Elections Committee and as such was supposed to remain neutral but was openly seen campaigning for the MP.
Frank Nkansah, coordinator for Nsenaa Electoral Area who is the lead petitioner alleged in the petition that the Chairman whilst addressing a section of party delegates sought to imply that President Akufo-Addo had ordered constituency Chairmen in the Region to make sure all incumbent MPs were retained.
They said the President being a patriot and a believer of the rule of law would never make such an order.
According to them, the suspension was orchestrated by the Constituency Chairman and the MP just to disenfranchise them ahead of the upcoming parliamentary primaries.
Mr. Nkansah said “the Constituency Chairman was instructed to refer the matter to the Constituency Disciplinary Committee for ratification and/or further action/punishment after having taken a definite position in the matter but after 26 days upon receiving the suspension letter, the Constituency Disciplinary Committee has vehemently refused to call us for a fair hearing.”
He said “the polling station executives are aggrieved about this unconstitutional act of the Constituency Chairman and the Regional Chairman and the affected members have threatened on several occasions to demonstrate against the party.”
He said the Coordinators are appealing to the party hierarchy to “kindly step in to reverse the decision of the Regional Secretariat which is against our fundamental human rights.”
BY Daniel Bampoe