Brouhaha At NPP Meeting

Brouhaha became the order of the day at the first general meeting of the Cape Coast constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held at the "Topyard" Cinema hall here last Saturday, which brought the proceedings to an abrupt end.

The meeting had started well as speeches from some members of the executives were delivered one after another with intermittent interruptions from the gathering until question time, when tension started mounting.

It all started when a questioner who had been permitted to ask questions accused the MP for Cape Coast, Hon. Christine Churcher, of distancing herself from her constituents and therefore wanted to know who is responsible for the ongoing development projects, whether it was the MP or the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Muniru Arafat Nuhu.

In replying to the questioner, the MCE told the gathering that all the road constructions in the municipality are at the instance of President J.A. Kufuor.

The questioner and his colleagues, who are suspected to be members of the so called 'Mate me ho group,' did not take kindly to the answer given by the MCE and started misbehaving and bombarding the executives with questions and accusations, thus making the work of the constituency chairman, Mr. L.E.S Sarbah, very difficult.

Some of the members were seen physically throwing their arms about in desperation to wanting those who were opposed to their views to come forward.

But for the presence of some elderly personalities amongst them, notably Lawyer Kwesi Spio, a one time constituency chairman of the party, who pleaded for tempers to cool down, a different story would have been told.

Earlier, addressing the meeting attended by members of the party from all walks of life, the MCE told the gathering about ongoing road constructions and street lights projects throughout the municipality and pleaded with members to bear with the CCMA to complete the projects by the end of the year as soon as funds were made available.

Mr. Arafat Nuhu further announced that the Assembly had also signed a contract for the re-installation of traffic lights, which had broken down over the past 20 years, during the year.

He pointed out that owing to the many accidents in the municipality due to lack of road signs and markings, his administration has also awarded a contract on road markings as a means to reduce the increasing number of accidents in Cape Coast and the region as a whole.

Touching on the Abura market project, the MCE stated that the market would be given a facelift befitting the area, even though it lacked adequate land for the market complex project, an amount of ?46 million has been earmarked for the continuation of the project.

Mr. Arafat Nuhu further hinted that the CCMA has been looking for a site for a new sports stadium to befit the region as the heartbeat of tourism in the country.

Also addressing the meeting, Mr. Edwin Godswin Buckman, who is the youth organiser as well as an Assembly member for Bakaano electoral area, announced the formation of disciplinary, finance, propaganda, women's mobilisation, youth mobilisation, campaign strategy and funeral committees to deal with all aspects of the party to enhance unity as well as peaceful co-existence of all members of the party and pleaded with all and sundry to reconcile among themselves since even most of the founding members of the party have died and gone.

Mr. Simpson, the 1st vice chairman of the party, who also spoke on the increase in the price of petrol, regretted that even though the NDC saw the need for the price increase, it lacked the political will to do so because it feared that if it did, it could not win the 2000 general elections.

He noted that despite the increase in the price of fuel, President Kufuor and the party have the support of the people both locally and internationally and pleaded with Ghanaians not to be disturbed as things would soon improve.

Long after proceedings of the meeting had been brought to an abrupt end, members were seen standing in pockets engaged in hot exchange of words and it took some time before tempers cooled down for members to depart from the premises.

An elder of the party who wanted anonymity who spoke to the press called on the leadership of the party from the national headquarters to take steps to bring peace into the party which he claimed had broken into three divisions, for fear of failing to retain the Cape Coast parliamentary seat.

He also accused the MP for Cape Coast, Hon. Christian Churcher, of distancing herself from her constituents since her appointment as the sector minister for primary, secondary and girl-child education.

According to him, any delay in finding solution to problems within the party now, is likely to affect the result of the 2004 elections.