Tema, July 23, GNA -- The Tema East constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has suspended its chairman and secretary for gross misconduct, which has resulted in a split among members.
The two, Mr. Obeng Fosu and Mr. Charles Boateng, chairman and secretary respectively were suspended by eight votes against two at an emergency executive meeting held recently at Tema.
Mr Ishmael Ashietey, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency announced this when he addressed polling station chairpersons at an emergency meeting to brief them on what transpired within the party that has tarnished their image and leading to the suspension of the two from the party.
Among a catalogue of charges, Mr. Ashietey said the "two organized some thugs to attack and possible kill me but I had to take cover else I would have been dead by now", while they continuously disrupted any meeting held to discuss the progress of the party in the constituency. He said, without stating any reasons the two, together with their supporters closed the party office at Tema Community One for about two weeks preventing members from entering there.
According to him, Article 10 of the party's constitution empowers them to discipline any member whose conduct brought the name of the party into disrepute, saying that they are yet to be written to. The MP said they ignored the party's constitution to seek redress for grievances and petitioning the leadership of the party in Accra instead of contacting the executives first.
To build a formidable front in order to retain the seat in the impending 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, Mr. Ashietey implored all members to bury differences among them and close their ranks.
"Our party is getting bad every day, the party is dying", he regretted, and urged them to endeavour to redeem its image by uniting with one another and rather step up their campaigns to draw more people into their folds.
The meeting described Mr Obeng Fosu and Mr Boateng as incompetent and inefficient as they have not done anything like convening a meeting under their tenure of office but rather kept on finding faults with everybody.