Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Lawyer Obiri Boahene has reiterated that he’ll throw his weight behind a prominent Mamprusi indigene to become the party’s next flagbearer.
According to him, by indicating his preference for a candidate from Mamprusi, he was only announcing his future endeavours, and not campaigning for anybody.
Speaking in an interview on Top Story on Thursday, he explained that his earlier comments do not constitute a campaign. Therefore, he has not violated the party’s directive on premature campaigns ahead of the party’s flagbearership contest.
“I was just telling the whole world my position in politics in the foreseeable future. And I still stand by that. That I am going to hold the hand of a leading character who is a Mamprusi, who is renowned and reputable in this country, and he’s going to be the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, and eventually he’ll be the President of the Republic of Ghana. I’m going to make that history and I still stand by that”, Mr. Boahene emphasized.
The NPP’s Deputy General Secretary said this in reaction to concerns by some aggrieved party members that, Mr. Boahene has been covertly campaigning for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to be the party’s next flagbearer. But the legal practitioner maintained that, his comments cannot be construed as campaigning for any candidate. According to him, he’s only revealing ‘his vision in politics’.
Responding to Mr. Boahene’s explanations on Top Story, a former appointee in the erstwhile Kufuor regime, Daniel Christian Dugan, said the defense by Mr. Boahene is not convincing. According to him, Mr. Boahene and other party officials are complicit in the selective application of the rules governing premature campaigning ahead of the flagbearership contest.
Citing the suspension of a party communicator in the Northern Region for declaring support for Alan Kyeremanten, Mr. Dugan said, Mr. Boahene knew about the circumstances of the suspension, yet has refused to address the situation. This he believes is a proof of the bias on the part of the party’s National Executives.
“By the party’s conventions, no party leader should openly vouch for an aspirant. So what he said actually, I beg to differ. He has violated the code of conduct which the head office brought, of which he’s part of it. Now, after somebody has been suspended, what did he do or say as a party executive member who feels that we need the support of every tom, dick and harry.
Mr. Dugan added that, “the way the things are going, once you make some people feel insecure, then you’re clearly dividing the front”.
But Mr. Boahene said if the suspension of party members for violating campaign rules was not done with recourse to appropriate procedure, then that is ‘unfortunate’. He therefore called for unity within the party, in order to retain power in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary polls.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Ashanti Patriotic Movement has also accused the leadership of the NPP of selective justice in the application of the code of conduct issued by the National Executive Council for presidential and parliamentary primaries.
They therefore called on the General Secretary of the party, John Boadu to apply the code equally. At a news conference on Thursday, the group said if care is not taken, the bias may stir divisiveness which may hamper the fortunes of the NPP in the next elections
The concerns by the Ashanti Patriotic Movement add to the sentiments of other party faithful who expressed similar views in a news conference, earlier in the Bono Region.
