The media got it all wrong - Dr Delle

Accra, Feb. 9, GNA - Dr Edmund Delle, National Chairman of the Convention People's Party (CPP), on Thursday said the media blew the issue about the expulsion of the three Members of Parliament (MPs) of the Party out of proportion.

He said media got it wrong in reporting that the Central Committee (CC) of the Party took a decision to expel the three MPs before referring the matter to the Disciplinary Committee as the Party's constitution demanded.

Dr Delle told the Ghana News Agency that the Committee only expressed its opinion about the issue, which by implication meant that it took a position and not an official decision as had been erroneously reported widely in the media.

"We consulted our Lawyers before starting the whole process and we were fully aware that we couldn't take a decision without recourse to the sittings, findings and recommendations of a constitutionally established Disciplinary Committee," he said.

He said the provisions of the constitution, however, did not prevent the Committee and its individual members from taking a position or expressing their opinion on the matter.

Dr Delle noted that he personally had a lot of respect for journalists and that was why he had not bothered to criticize the erroneous media reports on the matter until now. "It is also important to note that the Committee has the last word on this matter, howbeit based on the findings and recommendations of the Disciplinary Committee," he said.

Dr Delle explained that sections 76 and 77 of the Party's constitution were very clear on what constituted a breach and what sanctions existed for such breaches.

He said it was also very important to point out that the CPP as a Party did not have any deal with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to support the three MPs in the Parliamentary elections in exchange for CPP votes in the Presidential Elections in the three constituencies. He also corrected the erroneous impression that the Committee meeting in Kumasi was a clandestine gathering with the purpose of ousting the three MPs, saying that if that were the purpose, notices would not have been sent to the three of them to be at the meeting. "Ironically, while the meeting was going on in Kumasi, the three of them held a press conference elsewhere and called for an early national delegates' congress to vote out the current National Executive.

"Their press conference was what provoked the members of the CC to unanimously call for their expulsion and the subsequent referral of the matter to the Disciplinary Committee," he said.