Afoko fights for Crabbe

Paul Afoko, the suspended National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has said that he had no knowledge of the operations of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

According to him, he was not conversant with the way the NEC conducted its business until his election as chairman in 2014.

Mr Afoko nonetheless was emphatic that he had a constitution to work with.

The embattled chairman, who was under cross-examination in the case in which Sammy Crabbe, the suspended vice chair of the NPP, had sued the party over his (Crabbe’s) suspension, said Freddie Blay, the First National Vice Chairman of the party, erred in swearing in Ms Gifty Kusi, Member of Parliament for Tarkwa-Nsuaem constituency in the Western Region, as a member of the disciplinary committee of the party.

Led in evidence by Israel Ackah in a court presided over by Justice Dennis Adjei, Paul Afoko said the swearing in of Ms Kusi was unconstitutional.

He said per the constitution of the party, he was the one mandated to swear in the MP, adding that he did not instruct Mr Blay to do it, making the action unconstitutional.

Mr Afoko insisted that on October 7 last year when the swearing-in of Ms Kusi was done, he was in the country.

But the NPP’s lawyer, Godfred Yeboah Dame, is seeking to demonstrate that Mr Afoko had no experience or knowledge in the way the party conducts affairs at the national executive level.

He stated that Mr Afoko could not say that the conventions of the NPP require that there ought to be swearing-in of a disciplinary committee member before the appointment becomes valid.

Mr Yeboah Dame held that all the issues Mr Afoko had raised against Ms Kusi’s appointment were not hinged on the party’s constitution, adding that this was a case where he (Afoko) himself had never held any NEC position before assuming office as party chairman.

Mr Sammy Crabbe proceeded to court months after his suspension by the NEC citing violation of the rules of natural justice, error on the face of the records and a breach of procedure.

According to the suit, one of the members of the disciplinary committee which took the decision to suspend him had no locus to be part of the hearing.