Nana Dokua Asiamah Adjei
Aggrieved polling station executives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Akropong Constituency of the Eastern Region have descended heavily on the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Nana Dokua Asiamah Adjei.
They are asking her to desist from peddling lies about happenings in the area or they would be compelled to spill the beans.
According to them, they have already been given a raw deal by their lawmaker who through her assignees has slapped the area with multiple legal suits.
At a press conference on Friday May 27, 2022 in response to a radio interview granted by the MP, Kwadwo Aseidu Odei who is Osainbromu Akropong Electoral Coordinator advised the MP to desist from making comments that would force them to respond.
“After punishing us in such harsh manner, the last thing we expect from her is further pain and we would advise her to stop peddling the lies or else we put out even more of her callousness. She has succeeded in preventing our constituency from taking part in the Regional Elections; she has succeeded in bringing shame and embarrassment to our constituency. That’s enough, no more from her”, he disclosed.
According to him, the constituents hold no grudges against the MP who has chosen to punish them but would want the appropriate processes to be followed in order for Ghanaians to see the truth which will prevail over falsehood.
“We only appeal to the National Party Headquarters who have been sued by the Houseboy of the MP and used the name of one of her assigns to quickly address the court issue so we can proceed to also elect leadership of our party in this constituency. We hold nothing against our MP irrespective of all the ordeal she has put us through. We only ask that we make progress”, he stressed.
Read full statement below:
PRESS CONFERENCE BY ELECTED POLLING STATION AND
ELECTORAL AREA CORDINATORS OF AKUAPEM NORTH
CONSTITUENCY
Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, we bring you warm greetings from the mountains but come to you with a very sad heart. We are very sad, sad not because of the humiliation we are suffering or because of the embarrassment our constituency is going through, but sad because our pain, our embarrassment, our shame is brought upon us by our own Member of Parliament, Hon. Dokua. The Person to represent our interest, is now actively working against our interest and she is doing it with excitement. The Pain, the shame and the agony with this experience is incomparable.
Today, for the first time in the history of the NPP in Ghana, Akuapem North Constituency is counted as one of the constituencies yet to conduct our elections. Shamefully, the reason for the delay is because, our Member of Parliament has not so far been able to have her way to forcefully and illegally replace our names with her favorites. Shamefully.
Our pain and sadness stem from the fact that, since this whole Process of internal NPP Elections started, we have had to endure torture, abuse and maltreatment at the hands of the Member of Parliament and the Constituency executives led by the Chairman Frank Appiah, Organiser Appianti and Women Organiser Awo Yaa. And we will take our time to give you a chronology of accounts of where we have come from and how much we have had to endure.
SALES OF FORMS AND APPLICATIONS
The General Secretary of the NPP, Mr. John Boadu opened nominations for the Polling Station Elections and outlined the processes for acquiring forms and the cost therein as well as the requirement for qualified applicants. The Polling Station Elections was to be run between February 19, 2022 and March 5, 2022.
Subsequent to the General Secretary’s announcement, the Vice President announced, that, he has purchased and paid for nomination forms for all incumbent Polling Station Executives. The understanding from there was that, all of us who were already polling station executives will receive a nomination form for free, already paid for, by the vice president.
Our constant visit to the Party office to pick our forms as incumbents and for new entrants to also purchase their forms went without success. The administrator at the party office kept telling us the forms have not been brought to the office yet.
Some of us pitched camp there for 3 days hoping to have sight of the delivery of the forms, but without success. The evening before the deadline Day for the submission of nominations, we picked intelligence, that, the Constituency Organiser, Women Organiser and the Youth Organiser, were visiting and knocking on doors of some individuals and giving them the application forms on the quiet.
This got us alarmed and quickly started checking around. This intelligence turned out to be true which then clearly made us realize, there was a deliberate strategy to exclude the general party people from having the chance to apply.
At about 10pm the same night, which was a day before the deadline for submission, we had about 350 People seated at the Party office. A collective decision was taken at that time to go get applications from the Regional Office as indicated in the guidelines published by the General Secretary. Reason is simple, Deadline Day was approaching and yet about 350 incumbents had not received application forms not to talk of new entrants.
Thankfully, the next morning, which was the deadline day, the Regional Chairman was graceful enough and gave us some application Forms.
At about 11am that same day, the forms arrived and we quickly moved in, to complete our forms, at about 4pm when we were ready to submit our forms, the Constituency Chairman told us our forms were fake. In effect any form, not signed by the Member of Parliament won’t be accepted. It took a Phone call from the Regional Chairman before they agreed to admit the forms and asked we submit at the party office.
We had to rush and run around the whole day putting our documentation and paper work together for something that the party originally gave us about 5 days to do. We went hungry, tired and worn out but still did not complain VETTING
First day of scheduled vetting was a continuation of our ordeal, first of all, Hon. Ama Dokua to our shock, selected only those of us who applied using the forms procured from the Regional Office for vetting and indicated that, all the 725 applicants who applied using her signed forms, which she handed to them directly, will not be vetted.
After the vetting, she insisted against the decision of the other members of the committee, that some 188 applicants should be disqualified on the basis of having supported an independent candidate in the 2020 elections. This wholesale allegation was a very convenient one for her to be able to weed out everyone, so she can push through her promise of the 725 favorites going unopposed.
Some of us found this bizarre because we were her agents on the day of elections and we signed her pink sheets at the polling station and so for her to come back a year and half with this falsehood was untenable. We decided to appeal to the Regional Executive Committee to look into this.
The constituency Elections Committee Chairperson at the time, obviously being the honorable person she was, couldn’t be part of the illegality attempt by the Member of Parliament and so decided to resign.
Regional Chairman called for a meeting between us and the
Member of Parliament at Alisa Hotel. At this meeting, Regional Chairman’s decision was that, 94 out of the 188 should be vetted again. At this vetting, it came out clearly that the wholesale approach was a deliberate twist to get everyone out. For instance, at the vetting she accused Mr. Theophilus Nana Poku, Secretary for PTC Demonstration Primary Polling Station of having supported an independent candidate, it was at the vetting that Nana Poku proved to her that, indeed he Nana Poku was the MPs agent on the Day of elections and signed her Pink sheet where she won the elections. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t even know him. But for this confidence from the gentleman, she would have falsely accused him and knocked him out of the contest.
Eventually, 34 were disqualified by a unanimous decision of the committee.
The next day, which was supposed to be a brief meeting for setting timelines for the Polling station elections, Hon. Dokua came into the meeting with another twist, this time, she wants another set of 380 disqualified. Most of who are incumbent executives, her allegation is that, they, supported an independent candidate in the past elections. (very convenient excuse indeed).
Now think about it, initially, she wanted 188 and now she wants 380. Where and how does she come by these numbers. These are not just counters, these are human beings who have spent their lives and time, shepherding and building this party in their various polling stations years before our dear MP came into this constituency in 2015.
We decided to submit another appeal to the National Grievances committee as prescribed by our party’s constitution and were subsequently invited to a meeting in Accra. At the meeting was the Hon. Dokua, Regional
Chairman, General secretary, Director of Elections and other Party leaders. At that level, our MP, Hon Dokua, raised her issues and we did same. She raised the following issues; unknown in Polling Stations, NDC Members, Fake Forms, Members who supported the Independent Candidate, Youth
Organiser above 40 years, absent from vetting etc. The National Grievances committee addressed these issues as follows and a copy of the letter written by the Director of
Elections to this effect is attached for your information;
UNKNOWN POLLING STATIONS – Such Prospective
Aspirants should be vetted and given the opportunity to correct their mistakes
NDC MEMBERS – These Prospective aspirants should be vetted to ascertain the authenticity of the allegations. Those who will be cleared in the process should be allowed to contest.
FAKE FORMS – it was resolved that ones they are NPP members, they should be allowed to participate in the process since forms were not readily available to them.
MEMBERS WHO SUPPORTED INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE
– it was resolved that, where there is undeniable evidence to prove that such a prospective candidate openly supported the independent candidate in 2020 parliamentary election, such aspirant must be disqualified. In cases where there is no clear cut evidence to back that the member openly supported the independent candidate, such applicants must be allowed to contest
ABSENT FROM VETTING – There were varied reasons why certain candidates were absent from vetting. Key among these reasons was the fact that there was misinformation going round that those who had been called for the vetting should leave because they would be eventually disqualified. It was therefore resolved that, those members be contacted again for vetting
YOUTH ORGANISERS OVER 40 – The resolution on the issue was that in areas where the age of the youth Organiser is not above 60, that aspirant should be cleared to contest. However, the committee should exercise discretion on the matter. Where it would be a problem, the candidate must be changed.
MISSING APPLICATION FORMS – This scenario was not discussed, however, where an applicant’s nomination form is missing, it is directed that a new form be issued out to him or her and after proper vetting, he or she may be allowed to contest.
This letter from the National Grievances committee signed by the Director of Elections was dated March 10, 2022.
Easily, one would have thought this was a fair and just resolution and we thought that was going to be the end of our woes, But NO, our troubles was just about to start. We came back into the constituency and as expected, None of her 725 Applicants went through the vetting process. But we did, without complain.
Fast forward, all of us went through the vetting and eventually, about 37 were disqualified and the rest of us cleared to contest. It is important to note that the vetting committee included the Member of Parliament herself, her Political Aide who is acting as the Elections and Research
Officer, the Constituency Organiser, Constituency Women Organiser who was not supposed to be part of the committee in the first place, Chairman of Council of Elders and Chairman of Patrons.
10pm on the night of 16th March, 2022, a notice of polls with the names of qualified applicants was pasted at the Party office in Akropong and the Polling Station Elections scheduled for the next morning at 8am, (we have attached a copy of the Notice of Polls). 37 applicants were disqualified and the rest of us cleared and published by the committee to contest.
ELECTIONS
Day 1 of Elections went through without any Drama. It was on the Day 2 of the Elections, at Akropong Maternity Polling Station, The Constituency Chairman was present,
Constituency Women Organiser, Regional Police Commander and his team all present to observe. It was after that particular polling station’s election, where the former Constituency Youth Organiser who is also a Political Aide to Hon. Dokua, told the Constituency Chairman openly that, if they don’t stop the elections, they will not win even one polling stations.
Unsurprisingly, he quickly made a voice note and shared on all Constituency WhatsApp Platforms asking all their people to pull out of the elections and meet him at Akropong Mpeniase. The baffling question, is how did he know who their person was and who wasn’t, in a polling station elections which is still underway. We have attached a copy of the voice note for your listening pleasure.
It looks like most of their so called people didn’t get the voice memo so the elections went on as scheduled. This was the day the former Youth Organiser, went on a rampage and insulted the entire government and party without barriers including, the President, Vice President and the chairman of the Party. (we have attached a copy of the video for your viewing). He has since been suspended by the Regional Executive Committee for this misconduct.
COURT SUITS & PETITIONS
After the final Day of the Polling Station Elections, around
8pm, then we saw a notice of injunction filed by one of the
Spokespersons of the Member of Parliament, Richmond Kwasi Amoako, popularly called “Brother’, had filed a suit restraining the continuation of the Polling Station elections.
Thankfully, the notice came after the process was already done. Two days after the elections, when it was realized the court move by her boy was belated, Hon. Dokua then wrote a petition, this time signed by herself, to the Director of Elections and Research at the Party Headquarters, copying the President, chief of staff, Majority leader and several others.
This Petition was rightly so, referred to the Alternative
Dispute Resolution Committee chaired by the respected Hon.
Cecilia Dapaah. As we gathered, the first day of hearing, the Member of parliament requested that she withdraws the written petition and makes a verbal petition. Of course, she had to do that because the allegations of infractions made in her written petition, were untrue and could not be substantiated.
She submitted a completely different verbal petition at the ADR, different from her initial written petition and was given the album to go back, audit it and come up with the particular polling stations she has issues with and which specific positions.
She came back to the committee after some days with a list of about 50 Positions and indicated what her issues are with these 50.
The ADR committee then referred these issues back to the Constituency Elections Committee, of which she is a member, to come and look into the issues raised by the MP and also give their comments. The Committee got back, looked at the issue and gave their comments with evidence, pictorial, documentary and video to each of the issues raised by the Hon. Dokua.
The ADR after looking at the feedback from the committee and their Evidence therein realized there was no basis and so dismissed the MP’s claims. One would have thought that will be the end but NO, the Member of parliament wasn’t satisfied, she had to come in with one excuse or the other, list after list all in an attempt to have her way. Finally, the ADR decided that, some 12 Polling Stations, which the Women Organiser was responsible for supervising, should be re-run.
While waiting for the official communication of the ADR decision, the Member of Parliament then generated another list of 63, the most ridiculous move anyone could make, 63 Names of People that she wants in the Album and for which reason people who genuinely contested and won their elections should be removed and replaced by her list.
A copy of this list will be made available for you to read some of the most ridiculous reasons, mostly false and fabricated anyway, to only mislead decision makers to condone illegalities. For example;
No. 32:
Name: Emelia Awuku
Polling Station: Larteh, Akaade No. 1
Position: Women Organiser
Claims: Candidate is an influential political actor for the party. She is effective at organising events for the Party. Her contender was openly Campaigning against the party during the 2020 elections.
Basically what our Dear MP is asking for here is that, the person who has legitimately gone through all the process, passed vetting and his name published by the committee of which the MP is a member of, should be removed and her favourite should rather be inserted and he reason is simply because Emilia is an influential political actor in the area. Ironically, the influential political actor could not run an election in the area when according to the MP she wields so much influence. As a matter of fact, Emelia did not even run for the elections in the area let alone to win or lose.
Please Take Note of this Particular Name in the MPs list, it will come up again shortly.
No. 35
Name: Goerge Aforo Richardson
Polling Station: Larteh, Anglican Primary
Position: Chairman
Claims: Candidate was instrumental during the 2020 election campaign in the Akonedi Shrine. He is also a liason for the party to the fetish priests at the shrine.
Our Dear MP is asking that a party man who has genuinely run and won an election should be removed and replaced by Aforo simply on the basis that, Aforo is her liason with the Akonedi Shrine. Funny enough, this particular polling station is at the Anglican church and no where near the Akonedi Shrine. Indeed the closest Polling Stations to the shrine are the Larteh Plaza Polling Station and Larteh Methodist primary school Polling Station.
No. 41
Name: Fosu Calvin Kwawo
Polling Station: Presby Lower Primary Mampong 1
Position: Chairman
Claims: Candidate is dedicated to party related activities. His contender, Emmanuel Donald said he is a pastor and cannot indulge in active partisan Politics
There are 60 more of such ridiculous claims from the list of 63 generated in the MPs bedroom and demanded be inserted into the album so legitimate party members, who applied, went through vetting, their names published by the elections committee, run for elections and won be removed.
Of course, this request and list which goes directly contrary to the spirit of democracy and against the NPP constitution was thrown out.
The National Council subsequently directed that 12 Polling stations as indicated earlier be re-run.
POST NATIONAL COUNCIL DECISION
The rerun of the of the 12 Polling Stations were done on the on 18th May, 2022 without incidence.
ELECTORAL AREA CORDINATORS ELECTION
The Morning of Sunday 22nd May, 2022, which was the scheduled day for the Electoral Area Elections, at a predispatch meeting of the committee, the Member of
Parliament picked a pen and started circling names she wants out of the Album. Same names she had raised at the ADR and the committee, had investigated and thrown out.
Eventually, she succeeded in preventing 14 of our colleagues who had legitimately been elected by party people at the polling station aside from participating in the elections of the Electoral area cordinators. We decided not to protest this because we wanted the process to go on. At this point, it was quite clear the end game for the MP was to frustrate the process and not allow it to go on. The numbers were not significant enough to affect the outcome and so we decided not to grant her the pleasure of a protest.
This compromise by some of our colleagues paved way for a successful Electoral Area elections without further incidence. This was on the 22nd May, 2022.
CONSTITUENCY ELECTIONS
The Constituency Elections was subsequently scheduled for 25th May, 2022.
We have been sitting in numerous of meetings deep into the night listening to candidates campaign. Some of us were out of the constituency for private business, others also have their work places outside the constituency had all come back to the constituency to participate in the elections.
Meetings back to back, listening to campaigns all day on 24th
May 2022. Only to see a copy of a court writ around 8pm on 24th May, 2022 restraining the EC from proceeding with the constituency elections. And guess whose name was on the writ, Emilia Awuku, Does the name ring a bell? Remember No. 32 on the MP’s list of 63? The person she says should be inserted into the album because Candidate is an influential political actor for the party. She is effective at organising events for the Party. This time in the court writ, she is saying she won an election at the polling Station and her name has been removed. What the Member of Parliament and Emilia didn’t know was that, there is a video of the entire election at her Polling Station from beginning to declaration.
As a Matter of Fact, the said Emelia Awuku did not contest the elections at her Polling Station, let alone to win or lose. The second applicant on the Court writ is Godfred Ampadu, a House boy of the MP who lives in the MPs house and helps her at home in Akropong. Godfred contested the election at Akropong Presby JHS, Daakye in the full glare of the public and lost the elections. He got 28 votes against his opponent who got 84 votes.
The Confidence with which these two people lied to the courts in their statements knowing there are incontrovertible facts in both video and pictures is baffling. No wonder Emelia Awuku has flatly denied knowledge of any court process and has stated she has not authorized anyone to do anything.
We have her on audio denying knowledge of any court action and is surprised her name has been used for this. Infact, the innocent lady has not been herself since this action and has resorted to indoors till date.
CONCLUSION
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, listening to us give this tall chronology of events, we believe you now understand our frustrations and stress and the reason why we are pained and sad at the same time.
The question we keep asking ourselves is, why? Why would our own member of Parliament put us through such ordeal, such pain, such wickedness. Why would our Member of Parliament Ama Dokua met such callousness on her own people. All for what? Political power?
We were stunned, when we heard her speak on OKAY FM and spew out so much lies with such calmness. Naturally, we wouldn’t have responded and you would realise from all we have been through that, we do not want to engage in such banter, but her recent attempt to lie and spin the issues is what has pushed us to respond.
After punishing us in such harsh manner, the last thing we expect from her is further pain and we would advice her to stop peddling the lies or else we put out even more of her callousness.
She has succeeded in preventing our constituency from taking part in the Regional Elections, she has succeeded in bringing shame and embarrassment to our constituency.
That’s enough, no more from her.
We only appeal to the National Party Headquarters who have been sued by the Houseboy of the MP and used the name of one of her assigns to quickly address the court issue so we can proceed to also elect leadership of our party in this constituency.
We hold nothing against our MP irrespective of all the ordeal she has put us through. We only ask that we make progress.
God Bless The New Patriotic Party
God Bless Akuapem North Constituency
God Bless Ghana
By Vincent Kubi