Agitation At Shai/ Osudoku NPP Front

Deputy Attorney General, Ms. Gloria Akuffo, and the Dangme West District Chief Executive (DCE), K. T. K. Agban, are on a collision course over who becomes the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate for Shai/Osudoku in the 2004 parliamentary elections.

The battle lines have been drawn between the uncle and his niece. Their differences are being fueled by a perception that Ms. Akuffo is thwarting moves by the DCE to get the police to arrest suspects in an attempted murder of a policeman, Detective Sergeant Samuel Addo.

A letter dated September 8, 2003 and signed by Ms. Akuffo to the Greater Accra Regional Secretary of the NPP with copies to the General Secretary, Dan Botwe, and her opponents, Mr. Agban, were construed as intended to block the course of justice.

The fracas began when The Chronicle reported of the existence of a 'Kangaroo' court at Asutuare chaired by a carpenter, S. K. Akpo.

Ms Akuffo's letter headed: 'Re-Plot to cause arrest of constituents at Asutuare,' stated: "It has come to my attention that a plot involving one Simon Ansah (aka Terkpertse), an agent of the Dangme West District Chief Executive, is being hatched to have some persons in the Asutuare electoral area who are seen as my supporters to be identified and arrested by the police as being responsible for the attack and assault of a police officer during the unfortunate disturbances that occurred in the area.

"The object of this plot is to prevent these persons from participating in the impending primaries to elect a parliamentary candidate for our party in the Shai/Osudoku constituency."

According to Ms. Akuffo, she had received a copy of a letter of complaint from the polling station chairman of Sota in the Shai sub-constituency, of attempts to change some members of the constituency executive, notably the chairman, second vice chairman and the youth organiser.

Therefore, she said, she was compelled to bring these rather disturbing developments to his attention, not only in her capacity as one of the candidates vying to be elected as the party's candidate for the constituency in the 2004 elections, but primarily as a member of government responsible for the maintenance of law and order.

The letter continued: "Hitherto, I have done everything within my means to help restore peace and stability in the area and any arrest on the basis of this plot is likely to ignite disturbances in the area, which might be more aggravating than the past.

"I am therefore, by this letter, requesting your office to take the necessary intervening and remedial steps to avoid the recurrence of the disturbances in the area which will not only bring the party's image into disrepute but also create problems for government in the area."

The Chronicle learnt that two days later, 18 polling station agents in the constituency petitioned the General Secretary of the party to nullify the candidature of three contestants for the constituency's parliamentary seat.

They are Ms. Akuffo, Messrs Daniel Dugan and Samuel Ayertey. The petition stated, "We the under-listed polling station chairmen wish to petition your high office about some anomalies within the constituency."

It went on to say that to the best of their knowledge, any contestant who wished to file his or her nomination for selection as a parliamentary candidate, should be somebody well known within the constituency and for that matter must be marketable to the electorate.

The correspondence referred to the NPP's own constitution under Article 11, Sections 4 and 5. Section 4 says: "No member shall be entitled to apply for nomination as the party's parliamentary candidate for any constituency unless he/she (i) is a known and active member of at least two years. (ii) a registered member and voter in the constituency which he or she seeks to represent".

Section 5 states: "It shall be obligatory of the member seeking nomination as the party's parliamentary candidate to satisfy the constituency executive committee, the regional executive committee and the national executive committee that the conditions stipulated in article 11 (4) have been fulfilled, and any application which does not comply with these conditions shall be rejected".

The polling stations chairmen's petition further stated that as far as they were concerned, the three prospective candidates were not qualified to even file and contest the Shai/Osudoku constituency seat.

They called on the national executive committee to reconsider those nominations based on the party's own constitution and have their candidature annulled.

The Chronicle gathered that, so far, certain personalities the police declared wanted, who resurfaced after the 2000 election include Vadis Teye Muno, former assembly member, one Hans and Charles Honbey, in the case in which Detective Sergeant Addo of the Akuse police was butchered in August 2000, taken for dead and dumped at a cemetery.

Defunct kangaroo court 'judge' S. K. Akpo was also being sought in the abduction of one Tommy, who was going to be 'sent away,' but for his rescue by nearby villagers.

Tommy was kept in a taxi and the accompanying Nissan Urvan bus, belonging to Vadis Muno, was conveying men who were going to 'finish' him.

The Chronicle further learnt that after the taxi was set ablaze, the Deputy Attorney General allegedly stopped the police from arresting the six suspects, who are also walking free at Asutuare.

NPP sources The Chronicle spoke to, said the seeming backing of Ms Akuffo by the party's top people was rather creating a problem for her, because of the composition of her campaign team, which include Vadis Teye Muno and his friends.

It is said that a win for Ms. Akuffo is victory for the wanted men.