The special delegates’ congress of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) slated for Sunday, August 31, 2014, is likely to suffer yet another major setback if the signal being picked by DAILY GUIDE is anything to go by.
Information has it that some leading persons in the party, including aspirants in the upcoming flagbearership primary, are plotting to place an injunction on the crucial event.
A group that calls itself Crusaders for Change (CFC), led by Hopeson Adorye, Sylvester Tetteh, Tina Mensah and Baba Tauffic, yesterday dropped a hint about the ploy to sabotage the upcoming congress in a statement they issued.
“We are aware of the efforts of two particular aspirants, out of the seven, who have done their worst to persuade four other aspirants to join them to stop the Special Electoral College from coming on as scheduled for Sunday, August 31,” the statement pointed out.
They however, fell short of giving the names and identities of those supposedly behind the scheme to scuttle the congress.
That notwithstanding, the group claimed, “They have prepared a lawsuit which they want to file within the next 10 days to place an injunction on the Special Electoral College” and that they have already “lined up a few party members to be the faces of this lawsuit.”
Their case, leadership of the CFC said, was that “the party has not given the aspirants enough time to campaign”.
The group said those who are complaining, even if they are given more years, it won’t be enough for them. “There are candidates even if you give them eight years they will still not get more than 10 votes,” it posited.
Meanwhile, the NPP Constitution states that the party should choose its presidential candidate not later than two years before the next general election—when they are in opposition.
What seemed to baffle the group was the fact that “the NPP has spent a whole year moving from one internal competition to the other, while the nation waits for the main opposition party to show that it means business.”
Aside that, “We are accused of neglecting our duty as the official opposition party and that does not seem to bother the greedy ones among us who believe it has to be their way or we all stay on in opposition.”
This was what provoked them to come to issue a caveat to those behind any such scheme to back off or get exposed saying, “We are holding on to their names but we believe their disloyal ways must be exposed before they take shape.”
Leadership of the group did not spare former party General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow, on his latest call for two-time flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to step down for his colleague, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen.
For them, that call meant two things: “They are no longer interested in the National Congress to elect a flagbearer. They want a straight declaration!” and that “They know if they go before the party they would lose, so they must find another way not to make Nana Akufo-Addo the flagbearer.”
At a time that the CFC claims Ghanaians are crying for alternative leadership which they see in the NPP, they wondered why any well-intentioned party faithful would want them to spend more time contesting for positions within the party, insulting each other, spending money on itself, dividing its front and denting its image rather than to focusing on the big picture—winning the 2016 general elections.
