The largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has jumped into the fray involving the ownership of the newly-formed United Front Party (UFP) in Kumasi, and is calling on the security authorities to arrest the Deputy Director of the Electoral Commission in charge of Operations, Mr. Sarfo Kantanka, and the Chief Executive Officer of Odike Ventures, Mr. Akwasi Addai, who is the interim chairman of the UFP.
A leading youth activist and a member of the Nana Akufo Addo’s communications team in the Ashanti Region, Richard Adjei Mensah Ofori Atta, says the EC official, together with members of the UFP, must be arrested for electoral fraud and forgery, following reports that the commission issued double registration forms to the new party.
Confusion lingers within the UFP over the true ownership of the alleged NPP-breakaway party, tearing the frontline executives apart, and resulting in the issuance of double registration forms to the party by the Electoral Commission.
Claims by the Kumasi-based businessman that he is the founder and chairman of the party, has not gone down well with some leading members.
Mr. Addai, popularly known as Odike, together with some members, was alleged to have bypassed the executives, and nicodemously went to the EC head office in Accra to collect fresh registration forms, under the pretext that the old forms which was issued to them, and was in the possession of the acting General Secretary, Samuel Osei, had got spoiled after falling into water.
Odike, in his account to Kumasi-based radio station, said the new form was issued to him by Mr. Sarfo Kantanka, after they had allegedly convinced him about the status of the old forms.
Currently, the two factions within the party have possession of the two registration forms, and the EC was reportedly chasing them to hand over one of them, after it became apparent that the old forms did not fall into water, as the commission was earlier made to understand.
But, the opposition party is blaming the EC Deputy Commissioner and the Kumasi-based tycoon of causing the stand-off, and is appealing to the security agencies to take the necessary steps to bring all perpetrators of the fraud to book.
The NPP leading activist argues that the action of Odike amounted to the deceit of a public officer, whilst Mr. Kantanka’s failure to do due diligence before issuing the fresh forms, was also a criminal offence.
According to him, the actions of the two personalities were a direct violation of the Criminal Code and the country’s electoral laws, and they must be prosecuted.
“How can two forms be issued to the same political party? We believed there was something wrong somewhere, and we call on the security authorities to investigate the matter, and if possible, arrest the main architects of the act,” Ofori Atta ranted.
