Former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Berekum West, Captain Nkrabea Effah-Darteh (Rtd) has stated that people of his constituency are desperate for his return as MP.
This, he said is because the NPP members in the constituency are scared of losing the seat to opposition parties in the 2016 general elections.
[contextly_sidebar id=”7hOx4q1Qc58Qxb2NYyMqls2eaPQxmrY5″]“There is pressure coming from Berekum…the clamour is that if Nkrabea doesn’t come back, NPP will lose the seat in Berekum West – so much pressure from the youth and from well-meaning elders of the party,” he said on Eyewitness News on Wednesday.
The former Interior Minister under the Kufuor administration has announced his intention to contest the Berekum West seat in the NPP’s upcoming Parliamentary primaries.
Effah-Darteh who lost the seat in 2008 after representing the constituency in Parliament for eight years, subsequently made attempts to contest the presidential candidate slot the NPP but he was disqualified.
He later contested the General Secretary position of the party and lost.
According to him however, although he has since been occupied with practicing law, he cannot refuse the request of the members of the NPP in the constituency.
He recalled that he first got elected as MP for the area on the ticket of the NPP because it was handed down to him on a silver platter by the people.
“Initially, I did not intend to go to Parliament. I was practicing my law when the people of Berekum came to me and handed me the candidacy of the NPP Parliamentary seat in Brekum on a silver platter…”
“…In Parliament, I tried to do the best I can to serve my people. Unfortunately, after two terms, apparently, my people thought I had done enough and I lost the primaries,” he narrated.
Effah-Darteh was confident that after so many losses, he is in for a win this round because according to him, the circumstances which led to his earlier defeats have changed.
“I was rejected in 2008 but times have changed. The people who constituted the electoral college at the time, the general atmosphere at the time and the fact that I had been in politics for eight years; naturally, I may have made some enemies both local and elsewhere. All these coupled with intensive competition from my opponent made me lose.”
He disclosed that he has had years to do “a lot of post-mortem examination to find out why I lost in 2008 but all that don’t matter anymore because the fact is that I lost.”
“Currently as at today, April 2015, the man of the moment for the Brekum West is Nkrabea Effah Dartey and I think the credit goes to the almighty God my heavenly father. Apparently, it is his wish that I should go to Parliament come 2016,” he added.
Meanwhile, the NPP will head to the polls on May 24, 2015 to elect Parliamentary candidates who will represent the party in the 2016 general elections.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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