‘Afoko’s tenure forced more peace meetings than Israel and Palestine’

In attempt to justify the suspension of New Patriotic Party Chairman, Paul Afoko, a member of the party’s Communication Team, Richard Yeboah, says the party under Afoko’s leadership was forced to hold more peace meetings than that which occurs between Israel and Palestine.

His comments on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, ‘The Big Issue’, come a day after the party’s Chairman, Paul Afoko, was suspended indefinitely after a unanimous vote by the National Executive Committee (NEC).

NPP’s NEC meeting turned violent on Friday when members of the party’s private security group, Invincible Forces, burnt a motorbike and destroyed the windscreen of a taxi cab at the party office.

Aside this recent occurrence, the party has been faced with a number of violent incidents, forcing it to hold a series of meetings to resolve the impasse.

The NPP scribe who was dissatisfied with the recent developments said “since Chairman Afoko and his leaders came to power, we’ve[NPP] had more peace talks than Israel and Palestine.”

The Disciplinary Committee took the decision first to suspend Afoko after the National Council of Elders in September, wrote to it asking amongst others that he should step aside until after the 2016 elections.

Explaining circumstances that led to Afoko’s suspension, Mr. Yeboah explained that the Afoko was officially asked to appear before the disciplinary committee on three occasions to “give his side of the story” but he failed to show up.

“He was given several opportunities to show up but he failed to appear…On three different occasions, the party structures and the disciplinary committee availed the system to Paul Afoko to come so that his side of the story will be told but in all of these he failed to appear.

“We expected more from him. From the rank and file, you realize that people expected some level of leadership from Mr. Afoko and his steering committee and all the people who ought to act and make sure that the party moves in unison because the task ahead is not an easy one.”

He indicated that Paul Afoko can only be reinstated “if he is able to put his act together and use the necessary processes.”