NPP In Trouble Over Selection Of Delegates

…Wenchi East Women Organizer Brutalized

Offinso South Executives At Each Other’s Throat

The selection of delegates to the upcoming NPP Congress is already threatening to cause a major split in the ruling party because of the entrenched vested interests of various party executives.

The trouble ahead of the party was manifest last Saturday when the Wenchi East women organizer of the party was badly brutalized as a result of differences over the selection of delegates from the constituency.

A police officer in Wenchi confirmed in an interview on Joy fm last Saturday, that the poor lady came to lodge a complaint at the police station after the assault left her bruised all over the body with bloodstain all over her dress.

In the Ashanti region also, specifically, Offinso South, matters came to a head recently when the Constituency Chairman K.K. Boafo and a former constituency youth organizer of the party, Kwaku Konadu virtually entered the ring and had a massive verbal altercation on radio over the selection of delegates to the national congress.

Kwaku Konadu accused the chairman on Angel Fm of having selected his family members unilaterally as delegates without going through the due process. His accusations drew sharp reaction from the chairman and brought about a veritable deluge of abuse and invectives to and fro.

The former youth organizer revealed that the chairman has been persuading potential delegates to vote for Alan Kyeremanteng to ensure that an Ashanti retains the presidency. He said, the Chairman having realized that his lobbying was not making any impact, decided to handpick about 5 of his family members and three ex-officio members who are said to be Alan's sympathizers without the notice of constituency executives.

He accused the chairman of going to the farms and houses 90 polling station executives and manipulating them to endorse his handpicked delegates by giving them an amount of three hundred thousand cedis. The money was said to have been sent by Alan. This became the bone of contention between concerned executives and the faction led by the constituency chairman.

Reacting to the statement, the Constituency Chairman admitted giving money to the people in question to have the candidates endorsed. He however described the former youth organiser as a non-entity who does not matter in the politics of Offinso South.

“This is a man who must be ignored because his statements do not hold water. He can even go and complain to president Bush- it will not change anything. We have drawn our plans already so he can go to hell,'' he declared.

NDC Poised To Recapture Asuogyaman Seat Winson Addotey

The Founder and Overseer of Church of Philadelphia in Ghana, who is also the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for the Asuogyaman Constituency, Reverend Josses Asare-Akoto has promised to win the seat back for the NDC.

The man of God, has since his election after a highly competitive and successful primaries, started making feverish plans to wrest the Parliamentary seat from the NPP in the upcoming 2008 general elections.

He declared, “I have the resources and I’m in position to finance myself. I won’t put the burden on the national executives by waiting for them for resources before I make a move. I have the contacts and I’ll use them for the benefit of my party to beat the incumbent party.”

The church headed by Rev. Asare-Akoto, who has been a Minister over the last 20 years, has branches in Tema and Dansoman, Liberia and Togo. The candidate is also an industrialist and a real estate developer. He is the manufacturer of popular soft drink called ‘Asana drink’.

The NDC Candidate in an interview with the Lens recently in Accra said he wanted to represent his people in Parliament on the ticket of NDC because the party stands for the truth. According to him, his choice as the parliamentary candidate of NDC brings hopes to the people in the area and promised not let them down.

In his bid to leave no stone unturned to realize his dream, he has lined up series of activities to raise enough funds for the party in the constituency. This, according to him, he is doing in corporation with the loosing candidates and constituency executive to avoid any division and acrimonies.

He said he was putting in place the necessary programs to check any electoral fraud from the ruling NPP. He said the people in the constituency are dissatisfied with the NPP, especially the current MP for the area, Mr. Osei Kofi Ameyaw and are yearning for change hence his desire to help the NDC to meet the challenge.

He urged other NDC Parliamentary candidates to initiate programmes to raise funds to complement the help that would come from the National level. Too much reliance on the national level, he said, ought to be a thing of the past in order to improve spirit of ownership at the grassroots.

The man of God said he joined politics to make a difference. He explained that politics and religion are intertwined and Ghana’s politics needs religious leaders to help curb corruption in government. He debunked the notion that he would use the churches’ offering to campaign for himself.

He slammed some religious leaders that have decided to become the appendages of the government, a situation, resulting in low morale standards country.

On the party’s strength, the new Constituency Chairman, Mr Lovejoy Dusi said the passion of the people for NDC in the constituency today far outweighs that of 1992 and 1996. He therefore promised massive victory in 2008.

“The party is growing from strength to strength in the constituency and I can assure that 2008 is a forgone conclusion. Everybody is now very alert and would be vigilant to avoid NPP’s rigging in 2008.”

He advised NPP not to engage any mischief this time since the people’s revolt in the constituency may not spare them.