CPP Committee resigns for fair play

Accra, Feb. 3, GNA - The Convention People's Party (CPP) on Friday said the Chairman of its Disciplinary Committee, Mr. Riley Poku has stepped aside to ensure that the issue of bias raised against him by the three CPP MPs should not hold.

The Party said it would invite them again to appear before the committee so that "justice would be better served." A statement signed by Mr. J.B. Daniels, Deputy General Secretary of the party said it considered the approach of the three MPs whom it had dismissed from the Party to stay away from its Enquiry Proceedings as unfortunate.

According to the statement, the Committee said it considered that the proper way was for the three to show respect and appear together to express their concerns as reasons to stay away. The Party refuted complaints that the language in a letter received at the Party's Disciplinary Committee meeting was 'intemperate'. The affected MPs are; Mr Freddie Blay, Second Deputy Speaker and MP for Ellembele, Dr Paa Kwasi Nduom, MP for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem and Minister of State in Charge of Public Sector Reforms and Mr Kojo Armah, MP for Evalue-Gwira.

The statement said, "The Enquiry was to respect the principle of natural justice in the dictum ' audi alteram partem' and to employ the procedure offering the Parliamentarians the full opportunity to adequately answer the accusation, to adequately correct, or contradict any statement prejudicial to their case, and for members, as adjudicators to follow the rule to act fairly, in good faith, and without bias or judicial temper."

It said Mr Poku had stated he had nothing personal against the three Parliamentarians, and with the raising of likely bias against them, should he serve as Chairman, he had stepped aside as Chairman of the Enquiry for justice to be better served. "To follow the conventional practice the world over, the rest of the members of the Disciplinary Committee has the option to choose one of them to preside over the Enquiry and for a new letter to [be] issued to the Parliamentarians" the release said. 03 Feb 06