Nadowli West NDC disassociates from press conference

Nadowli, Jan.20, GNA - The Nadowli West Constituency Executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have disassociated themselves from the press conference held on Tuesday at Kaleo over the alleged disqualification of a parliamentary aspirant by the party’s Vetting Committee.

At a press conference in Nadowli on Thursday, Mr. Edward Abbey, the Constituency Chairman, said up to date no official communication was received either from the Regional or National Executives regarding the disqualification of any parliamentary aspirant from Nadowli West.

He said it was wrong on the part of the organisers of the press conference not to have given any prior notice to the constituency executives but rather held a press conference on behalf of the executives.

Mr Abbey said: “What we do know as constituency executives, on the recent vetting process is that it generally went well for some of our candidates but not so well for others. We know for a fact that one of our two competing parliamentary aspirants was rather very untruthful with regards to certain allegations of personal conduct at his place of work; and others bothering on criminality”.

Mr. Abbey said that particular aspirant was unable to provide correct answers to some basic questions posed by the Vetting Committee such as: “The total number of constituencies in the region and his answer to that question was eight instead of 10.”

The said aspirant could not also recall identities and names of his constituency executives, which raised questions as to whether he has been a true member of the NDC.

Mr Abbey said: “There is an audio recording of the proceedings at the vetting and at the appropriate time if given the opportunity to review the actual performance of our two aspirants we will do so for all to judge”.

Mr. Abbey said it was wrong for Mr. Vincent Dong, Deputy Youth Organiser of the NDC in the Nadowli West Constituency, to accuse Mr. Alban Bagbin, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, and incumbent MP for the area, of manipulating the system against Mr. Roger Gaalee, whose alleged disqualification had prompted the press conference at Kaleo on Tuesday.

Mr. Abbey called on party members to stop name calling as a result of the alleged disqualification of Mr. Gaalee since the final verdict was with the NDC national executives.

Some NDC youth in the Nadowli West Constituency expressed worry about the alleged disqualification of Mr. Gaalee from contesting the forthcoming NDC parliamentary primaries in the constituency.

Mr. Gaalee, an Administrator at the Upper West Regional Hospital in Wa, appeared before the NDC Vetting Committee last Sunday with Mr. Bagbin.

Mr. Gaalee was allegedly disqualified through verbal communication by members of the Committee with assurance that a letter to that effect would be sent to him later.

The youth, who were disappointed at the decision of the Vetting Committee, held a press conference on Tuesday at Kaleo in the Nadowli District to register their displeasure against the action of the Committee.