Nana Kwabena Adjei Twum-Barimah addressing party faithful at the forecourt of the party office at Asante Bekwai
Reminiscent to events that led to the emergence of an independent candidate at Bekwai in 2008, angry and frustrated supporters of the ruling NPP in the Bekwai Constituency of the Ashanti region last Wednesday thronged the party office in the municipality for a press conference that initially almost turned chaos.
The press conference was to voice out the ‘communists inferior tactics’ being adopted by the party executives both at the constituency and the regional level ostensibly to prevent party members who are interested in contesting the parliamentary seats in some constituencies in the region since the party announced filing of nominations about three weeks ago.
Addressing the media at the forecourt of the party office, a party faithful who also identified himself as a proud citizen of Bekwai, Nana Kwabena Adjei Twum-Barimah questioned the legality or otherwise of why some party people can prevent other party members from picking their nomination forms.
He said there are about eight aspirants for the Bekwai parliamentary seat but only the incumbent Lawyer Joseph Osei-Wusu who is also the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament was said to have picked his nomination forms at the time of filing this report.
Nana Twum-Barimah, also popularly called Abiola said other aspirants were being deliberately prevented from accessing the forms from the constituency and regional party offices since nominations opened as the constituency office has never been opened since and all efforts to reach to any of the executives, especially the constituency chairman have proved futile.
He recounted similar agitations in the area in the year 2000 and 2008 which degenerated into nasty and bloody situations and emphasized that the youth in the area have grown past that era and would not want to revisit same.
The visibly angry Abiola stressed that their group is not supporting any particular aspirant but only wanted the proper thing to be done in order to create level playing ground for all the aspirants.
A polling station executive of the party, Mr. Francis Fordjour said the incumbent must not be scared of any challenger and resort to the use of party machinery to thwart other aspirants.
He said they will continue to explore all avenues including demonstrations, but if the party refuses to budge, they will encourage any candidate of their choice to go independent as the First Deputy Speaker did when he first contested the Bekwai parliamentary seat.
Meanwhile, rumours doing the rounds at Bekwai indicate that the constituency executives have connived with the incumbent MP to pay for the remaining two of the three nomination forms made available to the constituency.
What do you think about this piece? Share your comment in the comment thread and share the story using the social media buttons above. You may reach the editor on 0249579664. Thank you.
