NPP internal election must not be reduced to a do or die

Candidates vying for the Ejisu parliamentary ticket of ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) have been asked to avoid creating needless tension, cracks and damage to the cohesion of the party.

Nana Osei Bonsu, a youth activist of the party, said it should not be lost on them that whoever would receive the mandate of the delegates to lead them to this year’s parliamentary election in the area, was going to need all the members and supporters to stand with him or her to win the seat.

That was why a purely internal party election must never be reduced to a “do or die. Nobody should be reckless”.

He added that “becoming a Member of Parliament (MP) is not the only way we can make ourselves useful to our community - help to make things better for our people”.

He was speaking at a press conference held at Kwamo, near Ejisu, to draw the attention of the national leadership to recent happenings in the party he described as unhealthy and tasteless.

Three people are contesting the parliamentary primary election in the constituency – the incumbent MP and Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr. Kwabena Owusu Aduomi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Entrepreneurial and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Mr. John Kumah and Madam Abena Pokuaa Amoah Boaitey, CEO of Golden Beach Hotels Group.

Nana Osei Bonsu said what the people were expecting to hear from the candidates was what they would be doing differently to bring progress to the constituency.

He expressed disappointment in what he said was the crude tactics adopted by the campaign team of Mr. Kumah - digging dirt and running down perceived opponents, citing unprovoked attacks on the sitting MP and himself in publication on April 9, by the Ghanaweb, headlined “Sponsored smear campaign against John Kumah exposed”.

He made reference to, what he cast as yet another orchestrated syndicated story in some of the newspapers and online portals, just last week, under the headline “Nana Osei Bonsu before the court for forgery, fake NEIP beneficiaries list”.

He dismissed those reports as pure lies and political mischief, calculated to malign both the sitting MP and himself.

“Yes, I appeared before the Juaben Circuit Court on Monday, April 20, to answer a charge of alleged publication of fake news, for which I pleaded not guilty.”

He explained that there was this forwarded message he received on his phone containing a list of people said to have benefited from NEIP financial support and surprisingly, he found his name right in there.

“Naturally, it should not be unexpected that I would ask questions, especially when I have not applied for or received any money from the Programme and I did just that.

“An aide of Mr. Kumah, who is not a member of the NEIP Management or Board and does not work with the Programme, driven by political mischief, then runs to file a complaint with the Ejisu Police against me for publishing false news.

“Mr. Kumah is a lawyer and I am inclined to believe that he should have no difficulty telling the distinction between forgery – in this case, falsification of an official document, a second-degree felony, and publication of false news.”

Nana Osei Bonsu said “telling naked untruths about other people for political gain is wrong, ugly and not a noble thing for anybody to do”.