Take ‘hard decision’ on K. Agyepong – Lawyer Adusei to NPP

A member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and a Senior Lecturer of the University of Ghana Law School, Dr. Poku Adusei, has asked the leadership of the party to “take a “hard decision” on any executive member who still holds allegiance to the suspended Chairman Paul Afoko, and recognizes him as such.

Tensions have risen within the rank and file of the NPP following the suspension of Mr. Paul Afoko for stated misconduct.

The consequence of the suspension is a visibly deepened crack, which has led to the death of a party member in the Asawase constituency of the Ashanti Region.

Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis and current affairs programme “The Big Issue”, Dr. Poku Adusei, who did not specifically mention names, eventually responded in the affirmative when the sit-in Host Bernard Avle asked whether he was referring to Mr. Kwabena Agyepong.

The lawyer is convinced that the party acted legally in accordance with its constitution as far as the suspension of Mr. Paul Afoko is concerned.

He said Mr. Kwabena Agyepong’s posture in the ongoing brouhaha is not helping matters.

“It creates a bit of discomfort for the party because for now; when a letter is addressed to the Chairman, it is supposed to be given to the acting Chairman to act on it; the one who operates the secretariat is the General Secretary of the party; but if he forwards that letter to the suspended Chairman to act on it, it means that we are going to continue with this kind of unfortunate development. I think the party is supreme; its organs are superior to the powers of any officer of the party. From congress to National Council, the next most important body in the party is NEC and so that decision binds every individual”. It may be bitter or harsh as has been interpreted by others, but let’s view the organs as superior in terms of our political discourse, other than that, we will be creating more problems for the party” he cautioned.

He further explained “My point is that, the party took a hard decision which is like sewing a seed. You sew the seed for it to die; then once it germinates it produces a good result and that is how it should be viewed. And any person who is actually engaging in acts that runs contrary to the decision of NEC must equally be sanctioned. I think that if we take those hard decisions, by the end of the year, the narratives and discourse within the party would have ended for those who feel hurt to go to the court so that it doesn’t become an internal party issue anymore”.

“One hard decision will be to deal with the leg in the party that thinks that the suspended chairman is still the chairman of the party. If you take that decision then we won’t have this kind of controversies whereby the man [Afoko] thinks that he is still in office”.

Asked whether one of those legs included the General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong, he responded positive “I believe so because the day that the executives overwhelmingly met in the office in spite of the notification that they should not come for that meeting, the secretariat wasn’t opened. There is a grand scheme out there to run down the party; and that is what we are seeing. There are those who believe that their personal interest should be superior to the communal interest of the NPP. So the party must be swift and deal with them decisively now for them to know that NPP has gotten owners “he concluded.