Agyepong, Afoko face death threats?

...They now live under 24-hour police guard

The rancour in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has reached unprecedented levels as Mr Paul Afoko, National Chairman, and Mr Kwabena Agyepong, General Secretary, now live under 24-hour police protection as they live in perpetual fear.

The Finder can report that the two individuals are being guarded by plain-clothes policemen wherever they go.

Similarly, their residences are under 24-hour guard by personnel of the Ghana Police Service to ward off any potential assassin.

Information available to The Finder indicates that the two gentlemen requested the police protection following threats on their lives.

This paper has picked information, which could not be independently verified that some people in the NPP who are not happy about the leadership style of Mr Afoko and Mr Agyepong plan to call for their impeachment.

Rumours are also flying around that some people plan to eliminate the NPP National Chairman and General Secretary if plans to impeach them fail, but The Finder could also not verify this information independently.

Ever since the Mr Afoko-led administration took office, the party has witnessed violent confrontations.

His supporters say the Afoko chairmanship is being resisted by people who opposed him right before the Tamale conference that elected him.

Critics say people continually intimidate and undermine Afoko’s authority on a daily basis, and recently, one of his aides was beaten, and his arm broken.

The dismissal from office of the party’s Director of Finance, Fred Opare Hammond, and the directive to Perry Okudjeto to proceed on leave generated a lot of confusion in the NPP.

The Constitutional and Legal Committee, chaired by former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Ocquaye, on their own investigated the matter and subsequently directed Kwabena Agyepong “to retract same and apologise to the Director of Finance, Mr Opare Hammond.”

But Mr Agyepong says a verdict by the party’s Constitutional Committee to have Opare Hammond and Perry Okudzeto reinstated as Directors of Finance and Communications is respectively unacceptable.

He insisted that the party’s legal committee had not been set up yet and so any directive to reinstate the officials was not acceptable.

It will be recalled that violent protests by some aggrieved supporters of the party disrupted a press conference called by the party's National Chairman and General Secretary.

On that day, a leading party woman was said to have poured petrol on a vehicle she suspects to belong to Mr Agyepong, threatening to burn the car.

Some supporters of the party besieged the headquarters threatening to attack the party Chairman and General Secretary.

The National Executive Committee of the NPP has been dogged by deep-seated mistrust, which has been breeding divisiveness and disagreement over almost every issue.

The executives, who were elected at the Tamale Delegates’ Conference, are believed to be split along the lines of their support for the flagbearer hopefuls of the party.

Messrs Afoko and Agyepong, who supported former Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen's failed attempts to lead the NPP to the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, are accused of trying to tilt the scales in his favour this time around.