Stephen Ntim
THE NEW Patriotic Party (NPP) has indicated it is arranging a meeting with all its presidential hopefuls to court their support and full cooperation in respect of their compliance with the party’s code of conduct.
The move, which follows breaches of the party’s code of conduct by some members, is part of efforts to regulate the conduct of presidential and parliamentary primaries of the NPP.
In a statement issued yesterday and signed by the General Secretary, Justin Frimpong Kodua, the NPP said the leadership of the party was determined and committed to ensuring that activities of all party executives or officers, individuals, groups, supporters and loyalists of presidential and parliamentary hopefuls did not breach the party’s code of conduct for presidential and parliamentary primaries.
“The party wishes to further state that the institution and enforcement of these measures are not intended to aid the electoral advantage of any prospective candidate, but to prevent tensions that often arise in the lead up to presidential and parliamentary primaries and secure a united party front for the 2024 general elections,” it pointed out.
The statement referred to some of the recent violations of the code of conduct, indicating that on or about August 3, 2022, Ekow Vincent Assafuah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Tafo Pankrono, during an interview with a Kumasi-based station, Oyerepa FM/TV, passed some comments that sought to advance the ambitions of one of the party’s presidential hopefuls.
“Despite a prompt from the host of the show that his declaration of support for a presidential hopeful violated the party’s code of conduct for presidential and parliamentary primaries, Hon. Assafuah blatantly maintained his position.
“In a related development, a ‘Health Walk’ held on Saturday, August 13, 2022, in Kumasi by some individuals claiming to be supporters of one of the party’s presidential hopefuls, violated the party’s code of conduct for presidential and parliamentary primaries,” the statement noted.
It continued further that comments made by some organisers of the supposed ‘Health Walk’ and other keynote speakers particularly, Hopeson Adorye, a member of the NPP, also breached the party’s code of conduct and sought to divide the party’s front.
“It is worthy of note that the walk was held a few days after the General Secretary had issued a press statement to caution all party members and executives to refrain from acts that breach the code of conduct for presidential and parliamentary primaries. Prior to the “Aduru Wo So Health Walk” the General Secretary and National Organiser of the party engaged the organisers of the Health Walk and urged them to abandon such plans as that would be in breach of the party’s code of conduct.
“The executives also granted interviews to various media houses cautioning against these imminent infractions of the code of conduct. Unfortunately, all these proactive interventions were not adhered to by the organisers,” the statement said.
It added that the attention of the National Steering Committee of the party was drawn to the aforementioned instances during the committee’s meeting on Monday, August 15, 2022 after which the committee resolved that Ekow Vincent Assafuah and Hopeson Adorye should be invited to appear before the National Complaints Committee as provided for in the party’s code of conduct, the statement said.
“Additionally, under the instructions of the National Steering Committee, Mr. Alan Kyerematen has been written to in respect of the “Aduru Wo So Health Walk” that was organised in his name,” it intimated.
The statement reminded that the National Council of the NPP, in 2021, issued a code of conduct, and directed all and sundry to endeavour to respect it.