Don't impose candidate on us - Salaga NPP Youth

Tamale, May 31, GNA - Some New Patriotic Party (NPP) Youth in the Salaga Constituency have called on the National and Regional Executives of the Party not to impose any parliamentary candidate on the people for Election 2004.

They warned that it would cost the Party dearly if they did that. The youth alleged that the National Executive of the NPP had picked Mr Boniface Abubakar Saddique, Deputy Minister of Tourism and the Modernisation of the Capital City, an Independent Candidate, who won the Salaga seat in the 2000 as the sole candidate.

Speaking at a press conference in Tamale on Sunday, Mr Braimah Mohammed Joe, Assistant Youth Secretary in the Constituency, said the people of Salaga would resist any imposition.

He said: " Mr Saddique is never our parliamentary candidate and any attempt to force him on us will be fiercely resisted".

He said the Salaga Constituency NPP executive members did not recognise Mr Saddique as a member of the party and he could, therefore, not drive away other aspirants from contesting the December elections. Mr Joe said: "What the Executives know about Mr Saddique is that in Accra, he is an NPP member but back in Salaga he is an Independent Candidate who still operates on his independent structures at the Constituency level".

He, therefore, called on both the National and the Regional Executives to give out nomination forms to the five aspiring candidates to file their nominations to go to primaries to elect a candidate for the constituency without any further delay.

The Assistant Youth Secretary cautioned the NPP to learn from the mistakes of the NDC in the 2000 elections when it imposed a candidate on the people and finally lost the seat to an Independent Candidate. He said the same would happen to the NPP, should they impose a candidate on the people without allowing the five aspirants to contest the primaries with Mr Saddique.

"We will support Mr Saddique if he goes to the primaries and wins but we vow to use legal means against the Party if Mr Saddique is imposed on us," he said.