Daniel Gariba, District Chief Executive (DCE) of Builsa South
The decision by the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Builsa South Constituency in the Upper East Region, Daniel Gariba, of becoming the parliamentary candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the constituency, is being fought by some members of the party.
The NPP members have hinted of plans to prevent the aspiring DCE from winning the primaries to represent the NPP in 2020.
Some of the angry NPP members say the DCE does not deserve to be an NPP because he lacks integrity, selfish and does not work in the interest of his people.
They also accused him of manipulating the party’s constituency election which was held last year, where only his favourites emerged victoriously.
They further accused him of monetizing the process to have his boys elected to hold various positions in the party.
“The (DCE) came from nowhere, he joined the NPP during the last election- through the instrumentality of the Upper East Regional Minister, Paulina Abayage- and today he wants to lord over us. Some of us will not allow this to happen because we have suffered enough for the NPP in this constituency,” one of the interviewees said.
Meanwhile, the NPP members in another interview with the Today’s newspaper accused the DCE of using his position to intimidate other potential parliamentary aspirants of the party “so that he can go unopposed when nominations are opened.”
The Builsa South NPP member further alleged that the DCE “while his eyes are on the Builsa South seat, he is also manipulating to have one of his boys into an executive position of the party in the constituency to take over from him as the DCE.
“Our fear is that the DCE cannot unseat the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) of Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak. Apaak is too tough for Gariba so we need somebody equally like Apaak’s caliber to contest in 2020,” the aggrieved NPP member told the paper.
“If DCEs were to be elected, I don’t think Gariba would even win,” the NPP member added.
Another leading member of the NPP in the constituency also accused the DCE of creating disaffection amongst party members in the constituency, a situation, he said, if not checked, would affect the electoral fortunes of the party in the 2020 poll.
“Some of us who contested the constituency election, and lost have been sidelined in all party activities. Our constituency chairman is the bosom friend of the DCE, so we expect that the DCE will bring us all together since we are one family,” the NPP man said.
“We’ll vote against him (DCE) if he is made our parliamentary candidate,” they warned.
Meanwhile, others have also made reference to a recent publication about the DCE which sought to accuse him f allegedly duping them of their money, Today can report.
According to them, it was reported that Mr. Gariba who owns a microfinance finance company, Com Aid, in 2015 was able to convince the management of the Home with mouth-watering interest rate promise to deposit their monies with his microfinance company.
The story said Mr. Gariba allegedly promised to pay 30 percent interest on every Ghc10, 000.00 deposit.
That, the source said, was the reason the management of the orphanage home deposited Ghc30, 000.00 with his (Mr Gariba’) company “ so that we’ll have Ghc9,000.00 interest on our money . ”
