Constituency Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the Ellembele Constituency in the Western Region, John Nwolley, has accused Acting National Chairman of the Party, Freddie Blay, of fomenting division among the party members and executives in the constituency.
He said these divisions have caused the humiliating rejection of DCE nominee, Stephen Donkoh, on Tuesday.
Nwolley said he and a number of disgruntled executives of the party as a result of the behaviour of Freddie Blay, who is the former Member of Parliament for the constituency, the nominee Stephen Donkoh, who is the constituency organiser and their constituency chairman.
“Let me take the opportunity to thank the entire Assembly, from both NPP side and the NDC side for rejecting the DCE nominee.
What led to Stephen Donkoh’s devastating defeat was as a result of divisions created by Freddie Blay, the Acing National Chairman of the Party, who also hails from the constituency and is much aware of the divisions which he himself has helped to create”, he said.
Speaking to host of Skyy Headline News Daniel Dadzie, Nwolley said “the chairman of the party in Ellemble and also the organiser of the party, Stephen Donkoh, who was nominated for the position of the DCE, connived to sell the only party car we have in the Ellembele constituency and when petitions were brought by the electorate to investigate, Freddie Blay travelled all the way from Accra and came to my house, the Constituency Secretary in Asaasetre and told us to stop all further investigations about the chairman selling the car because he, Freddie Blay is the National Chairman of the Party and he will make sure that when campaigns are due he himself was going to provide us with the needed resources to do the campaign. And I want to ask Freddie Blay, when the time was due, did he provide the car?”
The embittered John Nwolley further said, “Freddie Blay was in charge of the distribution of the Party vehicles to the respective constituencies for campaign. He hails from this constituency Ellembele. Let’s ask Freddie Blay, did he bring the car for the campaign?The only pickup we used was an old pickup that was donated to the candidate to do the campaign”
He also accused the former Deputy Speaker of Parliament of preventing some party members from contesting for the position of DCE for Ellembele.
“He again connived with Stephen Donkoh, the nominee, and the Chairman to bar any other executive from competing for the DCE position. When the research officer picked a nomination form, he was ignored by Freddie Blay, that he didn’t know him.”
Nwolley also said “ the Chairman of the Party and Stephen Donkoh the nominee have also written a personal letter to the regional secretariat that they have expelled me from the party, without following any genuine process.”
He therefore took responsibility for the rejection of Stephen Donkoh, together with other dissatisfied executives of the arty, asking “when these people combine as a bigger force to campaign against Stephen Donkoh the nominee, is he going to win?”
He however sad the Parliamentary Candidate for the Party in the constituency in the last election, Kwasi Bonzoh was not involved in any way, contrary to some soncerns raised by party activists in the constituency.
“We came together to campaign against Stephen Donkoh but not the candidate (Bonzoh).
Before the campaign there were so many issues, when I wanted to deal with them the candidate even called me that it is time for campaign so I should cease everything when elections are over he was going to make he was going to meet the aggrieved parties and deal with them.”
“There are persistent issues in Ellembele,” John Nwolley said.