Akwatia NPP to punish saboteurs

Correspondence from Eastern region

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) branch in Akwatia has vowed to punish all party executives and members who sabotaged the party from retaining the parliamentary seat in the constituency.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, December 11 at Akwatia, NPP Chairman of the Akwatia constituency, Alhaji Baba Yakubu, decried how the party lost the parliamentary seat even though it won in the presidential election.

He indicated that the party was still formidable in the constituency considering the wide vote margin in the presidential election in favour of the NPP which polled over 5,000 more votes against NDC's John Dramani Mahama.

Alhaji Yakubu subtly accused Mercy Adu-Gyamfi (aka Ama Say) for being the prime saboteur of the NPP in the Akwatia constituency in the just ended parliamentary election and indicated she and other executives would be punished duly.

"On 20th June we held primaries and (afterwards) Hon. Ama Sey decided to go independent. Leaders advise her but she budges. She refused to step down.

"We will, first of all, apologize to Nana Akufo-Addo on behalf of Ama Sey who did not show up when he came to campaign in Akwatia.

"Some of our polling station campaign publicly campaigned against the party...

"This afternoon we are addressing the media to say that any member who campaigned against the party, we have a constitution that will deal with you accordingly.

"Any member who sabotaged the party, the party will deal with you accordingly. Whoever falls guilty (of the sabotage) we shall suspend that person.

"We have sabotaged ourselves and (as the chairman) I will ensure we take back the seat in 2024," Alhaji Baba Yakubu said at the press conference.

He stated emphatically that all the saboteurs will be alienated by the party.

The NPP lost the Akwatia seat to the NDC in the just ended parliamentary election as many of the electorates voted against the NPP candidate Ernest Yaw Kumi and voted for Akufo-Addo in the presidential race.

The electorate "skirt and blouse" action was to indicate their displeasure with the NPP constituency executives for clandestinely unseated their favourite Ama Sey who snatched the seat for the NPP in 2016.

In the heat up to the December 7 election, Ama Sey, reportedly campaigned for Akufo-Addo and however told the constituents to exercise their own discretions in the parliamentary election.

In the 2020 election, Akufo-Addo obtained 21,758 as against the NPP parliamentary candidate Kumi who polled 18,750.

The NDC's John Mahama got 16,181 while his parliamentary candidate, Henry Kwadwo Boakye Yiadom, won with 19,990 votes.

The vote difference between Akufo-Addo and Mahama was 5,577 while the difference between Kumi and Yiadom was 1,239. A clear case of "skirt and blouse" voting.