A former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Ohene Ntow has warned that the method being adopted by the party to oust its National Chairman and General Secretary will have dire consequences.
“If a democratic party like the New Patriotic Party cannot go by its constitution, but will choose Tunisian style uprising to deal with these issues, we are undermining the party’s democratic credentials,” he said on Eyewitness News.
[contextly_sidebar id=”em81MXPLvjfu1JMCEtLge7ubXUvTjbTn”]There seems to be a majority decision within the NPP for the party’s National Chairman, Paul Afoko and General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong to step aside.
Nine regional offices of the NPP have endorsed the proposal while the Council of Elders have also written to the two executives to step down from their positions.
All these come on the back of the gruesome murder of the NPP’s Upper East Regional chairman, Mahama Adam who was killed in an acid attack.
A brother of Paul Afoko has been linked to the murder.
Adam Mahama’s death is believed to have occurred as a result of an altercation a week earlier between him, the National Chairman and the General Secretary went to the region to organize a meeting without his knowledge.
After his burial last Saturday, pressure has been mounting on Afoko and Agyepong to resign.
The latest to add their voice to the call are the Minority Legislators.
According to them, “that in the circumstances, the two national officers be requested, in the interest of peace, unity, trust and stability in the party, to step aside to allow for an impartial investigation into these matters especially the gruesome murder of Mr Adam Mahama, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).”
Nana Ohene Ntow is however of the firm believe that it is important for the party’s constitution to be upheld during these challenging times.
He described the Minority’s letter as being “subservient to the constitution of the NPP,” suggesting that, “whatever proposals that are being made in the letter from the Minority; those proposals must be subjected to the provisions of the NPP’s constitution.”
Ohene Ntow expressed shock that MPs who are “very well briefed” and “very knowledgeable in the provisions of our constitution,” will join the bandwagon.
The former General Secretary observed that the current happenings within the party is “totally unprecedented” and cautioned that “whatever you do today, even if it is not constitutional, even if it is legal, will set a precedent and in this case, let me warn all of us; we are going to set a very dangerous precedent which will come to eat us up one day. If nothing at all, it will come to haunt us.”
According to him, despite the fact that about nine regions have endorsed the decision to oust the two national executives, “it does not give reasonable acceptance to an illegality, it does not give support to unconstitutionality, we should be very careful.”
“It does not matter how popular an illegal and an unconstitutional act is; it is still illegal, it is still unconstitutional and we’ve got to be careful. We are chartering a dangerous course, we are setting a dangerous precedent and we’ve got to be careful,” he warned.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @osamidan