Mr. Andrew Awuni, former Presidential Press Secretary to ex-president John Agyekum Kufuor has opined that the purported suspension of the party’s National Chairman, Paul Afoko, will only go to reaffirm the charge that the biggest opposition party is indeed, an Akan party.
An incensed Andrew Awuni, could not fathom why some Akans in the NPP had antagonized a hardworking Chairman like Paul Afoko since his election. He accused the party’s 2016 flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of being behind Chairman Afoko’s indefinite suspension.
Speaking to Adakrabre Frimpong Manso on Neat Fm last Friday, Mr. Awuni, who is also the Executive Director of Center for Freedom and Accuracy said “my admiration for Akufo Addo has weakened. He is aware of all the happenings in the NPP. I used to admire him a lot to the extent that during my school days I appealed to Ben Ephson to help me see Nana. I met Ben at Bus Stop restaurant and he took me to Nana for the first time but Adakabre, this is not the Akufo Addo I know and this party will not go anywhere with this attitude.”
He added “Afoko is the only NPP candidate to have been taken to the Interpol to be investigated. But please I want to tell you that, many of those who initiated this wicked plot will not come back to Ghana if made to face the INTERPOL. They camped people at the Modern Hotel in Tamale during the Congress and paid them monies to vote against Afoko. Why? Is it because he is a Northerner? I think it is time for some of us to think the other way”
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of NPP last week in a unanimous vote, purportedly suspended its National Chairman Paul Afoko indefinitely.
The NEC upheld the overwhelming decision by the party’s Disciplinary Committee which had earlier decided that Mr Afoko be suspended.
The Disciplinary Committee took the decision after considering a petition by two senior members of the NPP from the North, demanding amongst others, that the National Chairman Paul Afoko, be made to step aside until after 2016 elections.
This development, which has been heavily criticized by many as a long standing ploy by Nana Akufo-Addo and his assigns to get rid of Paul Afoko, according to Andrew Awuni goes to prove claims by opponents of the NPP that the party despises non-Akans.
It would be recalled that a former Attorney General in the Kufuor administration, Nii Ayikoi Otoo, last year made similar statement when he said non-Akans feel like outcasts in the NPP.
Meanwhile, the supposed suspended Chairman has advised the public to disregard notice of his suspension by the party.
In a statement signed by his spokesperson Nana Yaw Osei, the embattled chairman said the decision by the NEC is not binding on him.
“We want to state in unequivocal terms that the improperly constituted National Disciplinary Committee cannot recommend any indefinite suspension of Mr Afoko to the National Executive Committee whose chairman did not call the meeting that purportedly endorsed the so-called decision of the national disciplinary committee.
“We insist that an improperly called meeting of the NEC cannot legally deliberate on any matter for it to have proper effect of binding on Mr Afoko as the national chair.
“The general public is entreated to treat the statement from Nana Akomea with the contempt is deserves and disregard same,” the stated noted.
Source : Al – Hajj
