No agenda to replace deceased NPP MPs with wives, it’s sheer coincidence – Obiri Boahen

Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has dispelled concerns that the party has adopted a strategy to win sympathy votes by replacing the party’s deceased parliamentarians with their wives.

He said while there have been two recent instances where the wives of sitting NPP Members of Parliament have replaced their husbands following the deaths of their husbands, it is a sheer coincidence and not deliberate.

The NPP Deputy General Secretary made the comments in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb following speculations that there is a hidden strategy by the governing party to always replace its deceased MPs with either their wives or other relatives.

Political scientist, Dr Alidu Seidu, has, for instance, warned that the practise was dangerous.

But Nana Obiri Boahen said while the concerns are noted, there is no ongoing strategy in that regard within the NPP.

“It is sheer coincidence. The point is that when these things happen, the party relies on recommendations from the party executives in the constituency,” he told GhanaWeb on Wednesday, October 14, 2020.

Two of these replacements have happened within the NPP within the last two years.

Lydia Alhassan replaced her husband, Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko, who died while a sitting NPP MP.



She won the by-election in 2019 that was characterised by armed violence between the opposition National Democratic Congress and NPP to become the legislator for the area.

Recently, in the Mfantseman Constituency of the Central Region, the NPP settled on Ophelia Hayford, the wife of Ekow Quansah Hayford, the MP who was murdered by some unknown assailants on Friday, October 9, 2020.

But Obiri Boahen told GhanaWeb that the NPP constitution does not stipulate that wives of sitting MPs should automatically replace their husbands when they die.

“The NPP constitution is structured in that way that does not allow that…whoever is chosen needs the concern of the National Executive Committee and the National Council. That is how the NPP operates,” he stressed.

He said the NPP constitution even gives opportunity to a member of the NDC to contest on the ticket of the NPP, “the important thing is that the NEC and the National Council must agree to it, that is all.”