The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has appointed two persons to act in the stead of the suspended General Secretary and the Youth Organiser, Nii Armah Akomfrah and Ernesto Yeboah respectively.
Asani Tano, who happens to be the Deputy General Secretary in-charge of Administration, is now the acting General Secretary and Nabila Basiru, Deputy Youth Organiser, also acts as Youth Organiser.
Messrs Akomfrah and Yeboah were suspended on June 30, 2016 for publicly condemning President Mahama for accepting a $100,000 Ford Expedition gift from a Burkinabe contractor – Djibril Kanazoe – who later won priced Ghana government contracts. The said gift was considered to be a bribe.
The decision to suspend them was taken at a Central Committee meeting of the party where they [Ernesto Yeboah and Nii Armah Akomfrah] were cited for publicly chastising and humiliating the party’s flagbearer, Ivor Kobina Greenstreet in the media.
The committee members claimed that Ernesto and Nii Akomfrah had brought the party’s name into disrepute, and had therefore been referred to its disciplinary committee for further action.
Pending the action from the disciplinary committee hearing, they were therefore barred from holding themselves out as officials of the CPP.
But a statement by CPP National Chairman, Prof Edmund N. Delle, on Thursday said the new arrangement “takes effect immediately until further notice.”
Beliefs
The two suspended officers are believed to be strong supporters of immediate past party chairperson, Samia Nkrumah, who contested but lost the CPP flagbearer position to now presidential candidate, Ivor Kobina Greenstreet.
Many are those who have questioned the party’s decision to suspend the duo for speaking against what is thought to be a corrupt practice.
It is believed that Kanazoe’s friendship with the president earned him some of the juicy contracts, chief among them are the construction of a fence wall at the Ghana Embassy in Burkina Faso at a cost of $650,000 and the Dodo Pepeso-Nkwanta road costing €25.9 million with the third one being a 28-kilometre road project between Wa and Hamile in the Upper West Region at an estimated cost of GH¢82 million – which he (Kanazoe) chickened out of after the scandal broke.
Even though government and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) functionaries have denied any wrongdoing on the part of the president, the two national executives of the CPP are among several others who think otherwise.
Ernesto Yeboah, leading the CPP Youth League, proceeded to file a petition with the Commission on Human Rights and Administration (CHRAJ) to investigate the president’s involvement in the entire scandal.
When he took his turn at the Institute of Economic Affairs’ (IEA’s) ‘Evening Encounter’ programme, Mr Ivor Greenstreet was asked a question about the controversial Ford Expedition vehicle given to President John Dramani Mahama by the Burkinabe contractor.
Surprise
Mr Greenstreet’s response came as a major surprise to many who thought he would condemn what many see as a wrongdoing on the part of the president – accepting a gift – which is said to have compromised his office.
But he said he would not join those carping at the president over the findings of the investigation.
“They want me to jump on their bandwagon. I am not an agitator for other people’s political intentions,” he said.
But an obviously disappointed Executive Secretary of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Vitus Azeem said, “I think they have to come out with an agenda, maybe it is in their manifesto, but they need to come out with a better agenda on how they will handle corruption if it comes up.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu