…As 400 members resign from party in Tamale

IN THIS crucial moment when all political parties in the country are strategizing to strengthen their structures and widening their net for possible victory in the 2008 general elections, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is currently developing cracks in one its strongholds, the Northern Region. About 400 card-bearing members of the party have resigned en bloc from the party for an alleged “lackadaisical behaviour” and ineffectiveness of the Party’s Regional Executives towards addressing concerns of Youth Groups in the Region.

The groups, who have threatened to cause more resignation in the NDC, include: the Lawyer Inusah Fan Club, from Dagbandaba Fong, Wuaku Commission, Friends of NDC and the Zongo Boys, all in the Tamale Central Constituency.

The aggrieved youth disclosed in a press statement issued in Tamale, that the leadership of the party had awfully failed to pay attention to and address some pertinent grievances of the youth, making them feel disillusioned and segregated at all times.

The resignation notice, which was contained in a statement to the press and copied to the NDC Regional Chairman, Tamale Central Consistency Chairman, was signed by their Secretary, Mr. Amadu Yussif and Organiser, Fuseini Ukasha.

They maintained, “Should the Regional Executives continue their lackadaisical behaviour towards the youth groups in the Region, more resignations would be expected and that will lead to ambiguous defeat of the party in 2008.”

The youth disclosed that the Regional Executives had unjustifiably dissolved two of such fan clubs in the Tamale Central Constituency, due to some small misunderstanding that occurred between the two clubs. Describing it as “unwise” for the Executives to dissolve the clubs, appealed to the National Executives of the NDC to call the Regional and Constituency Executives of the party to order, before the NDC loses a good chunk of its members in the Region.

The four groups have not yet declared any intention of joining any political party. All efforts by The Chronicle to interview some of the Regional Executives of the NDC and the Tamale Central MP, Inusah Fuseini proved unsuccessful.

However, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale North, Alhaji Abukari Sumani speaking in an interview with Fiila FM in Tamale, described the resignation as serious but said the situation was one of the “usual happenings”, which could befall any political party at anytime.

He appealed to the aggrieved youth to rescind their decision and dialogue with their Regional Executives for the betterment of the NDC. The MP admitted that all the four groups were really from the NDC and charged the Executives to adopt means of thrashing out the issue, since the party was in a crucial time of organizing its members ahead of the 2008 general elections.

Alhaji Sumani promised to personally intervene with his colleague NDC MPs to ensure that the youth were back into the party and their grievances addressed.

But the aggrieved members said they were not ready to enter into any agreement with any party executive for now.

The group members, who were too economical to tell Fiila News as to whether or not their action was being influenced by some political parties, however disclosed that some political parties had already started chasing them and thus they would soon announce to the public which political party they would join.