Politics of Saturday, 18 June 2005

Source: Ghanaian Chronicle

CPP's Araba Spits Fire

...Says Her Expulsion is Illegal
THE FIRST national vice chairperson of the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP), Comrade Araba Bentsi-Enchil, has fired a salvo at a group of party executives which has ganged up to dismiss her as the Central Regional Chairperson of the party at the time she was out of the country.

According to her, the plans of the group were nothing but a "mischievous, opportunistic and a front for diabolic persons" who wanted to embark upon such moves for their personal motives.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Chronicle, Araba described the group again as "a poodle for self-seeking and unproductive persons who are hell-bent on usurping key positions in the party for stereotype political ambition, to the detriment of CPP and the ordinary people of Ghana."

She maintained that it was unfortunate that they were raising frivolous allegations to suggest that she had misappropriated the funds for the party.

"I have not done anything to warrant dismissal, not because I am indispensable.

I want to make it clear that the party has not given me any money, I used my own money to secure various constituency offices of the party. I have not misappropriated any money."

Mad. Bentsi-Enchil who suspected a big wig behind the motives of the gang, noted, "The gang does not have the financial clout to convene a meeting in a luxurious hotel to the extent of providing meals and allowances without an external assistance".

Elaborating further on the charges levelled against her by the group as being an "inefficient, undemocratic and scandalous person", she quickly rebuffed them, saying they were "ridiculous and childish".

She charged, "I am the only one who is building the party in the region financially with few loyalists. Without me, the CPP will cease to exist in the region. In actual fact, the party would collapse without me and that is why I am opposed to those who do not share the ideologies of the party. I am challenging anyone who had assisted her financially to show up," she submitted.

Mad. Bentsi- Enchil, the Central Regional chairperson of the CPP, noted that ever since she was elected to the post of regional chairperson, not even a cedi has been doled out by national leadership to administer the party, which she averred was contrary to the accusations by the group that she embezzled funds raised in the name of the party at the regional level.

Responding to questions on what she had done for the party, she claimed that, at the time she became regional chairperson, the party had no office to boast of, because it was in arrears over rent, which resulted its eviction. She wondered where the so-called 'big man' of the party was, when the party was without a roof over its head.

The CPP stalwart bemoaned the conduct of the groups calling for her head with unsubstantiated allegations, stressing that the unpatriotic behaviour of the executives, especially the regional secretary of the party, had impeded the smooth running of the party.

"Kofi Aganu adopted the extortionist habit of demanding that I (Madam) should pay the cost of transportation, pen and paper whenever he comes to meeting," she alleged.

Mad. Bentsi- Enchil pointed out that Kofi Aganu stopped attending meetings because of her unyielding stance on the latter's 'ill-demand'.

She described such characters as opportunists and labelled the group as an NPP mole trying to destroy Nkrumah posthumously.