PRESS CONFERENCE ORGANIZED BY A CROSS-SECTION OF POLLING STATION CHAIRMEN OF NEW JUABEN NORTH CONSTITUENCY IN REACTION TO THE FALSE ACCLAMMATION OF HACKMAN OWUSU AGYEMANG AS NPP PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE FOR NEW JUABEN NORTH CONSTITUENCY

Gentlemen and Ladies of the Press:

We have invited you here today in connection with certain unfair practices surrounding the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary nomination here in New Juaben North, and we shall proceed by briefing you on the following points:

1. Background of events

2. Court Action and Outcome

3. False Acclamation of Hackman

4. The Way Forward

Since time immemorial, it has been the dream and scheme of Hackman Owusu Agyemang, the sitting Member of Parliament for New Juaben North, to circumvent laid-down democratic procedures in order to perpetuate himself as the sole/unopposed parliamentary candidate for the New Juaben North Constituency. As part of his grand scheme, he selected one sentence in the constituency’s constitution and proceeded to use it as his article of faith upon which to seek the disqualification of Dr. Samuel Annor, a faithful and popular member of the Party. The said sentence in the constitution simply states that a party official must resign his post before contesting for national office.

In connection with this point, we humbly note that the clause does not define the process of resignation. It simply says an officer must resign by a certain date before filing his nomination. It is in this context that Dr. Annor proceeded to hand in his resignation to the constituency Secretary as required by the Party bye-laws.

Strangely, Hackman Owusu Agyemang petitioned the national executive of the NPP, using inflammatory language to argue that Dr. Annor’s resignation was not valid. Through false claims and argumentation, he sought to frustrate and to hijack the democratic process for which our party is well known and well respected, thereby stultifying the voice of the people which is also the voice of God. When events led to the point where we saw clearly that somehow, he was going to cause his own self- acclamation and aggrandizement, we duly sought the intervention of the courts. Then last week, the court agreed to a request by the Party officials to seek an amicable solution to the issue at stake. During the ten-day period agreed upon, no meeting was called to discuss any issue. Surprisingly, just yesterday, on the 3rd of July 2008, the court dismissed our suit on the grounds that those that brought the suit were not qualified to be parties to the suit.

Ladies and gentlemen, we went to the court with thirty-three out of the fifty-five delegates qualified to elect the Parliamentary candidate. The dust had barely settled on the court’s ruling when Hackman’s henchmen gathered at Oyoko to proclaim him unopposed, side-stepping the constitutional requirement that demanded the presence of a certain quota of delegates before the popular acclamation of a parliamentary candidate. In the face of this political chicanery, we are asking the following questions:

1. Who is Hackman trying to fool? The man knows that the constituency is fed up with him and will definitely vote against him should the normal democratic process be allowed to proceed. That is why he has engaged in political acrobatics to steam-roll his way to parliament.

2. How is the perennial end of democracy achieved by silencing the voice of the people? What type of kangaroo democracy took place at Oyoko when a motley crowd of bemused and befuddled individuals jettisoned our Party’s constitution and proclaimed Hackman unopposed?

3. What happened to Hackman’s many promises to step aside after his current term and to allow fresher ideas to prevail in the party? What happened to honor, integrity, respect and good faith?

4. Who or what is Hackman afraid of as he moves heaven and earth to circumscribe the popular vote? And how far is he going to take his politics of intimidation, his threats, coercion and crass disrespect of the opinion of the masses?

We are here today to send a message to Hackman and his cohorts. We are here today to say that you can fool the people some of the time but never all the time. We are here to say that we are fed up with Hackman’s tricks, and that the democratic process which he fears so much, should be allowed to unravel now at New Juaben North or else it will unravel later to lead to his defeat in his bid to go to Parliament. We are here today to put our grievances before the tribunal of public opinion and to declare that what happened at Oyoko is a gross travesty of our democracy, a nullification of generations of wisdom and wishes of the people, and an indictment against the very ethics, tenets and spirit of the New Patriotic Party. To this end, we are serving notice here today that our patience is fast running out. We are no longer willing and able to countenance dictatorship and tyranny within the New Juaben Constituency. The Mugabe type of politics which is being replicated here by Hackman Owusu Agyemang will miserably fail. This coming elections will surely see the end of his era in Parliament. The Party belongs to all of us, not to Hackman alone, and unless the harm that was done at Oyoko is immediately undone, we are serving notice here today that we will go as far as the one who goes farthest to ensure that the fraudulent and criminal machinations of Hackman Owusu Agyemang, his stonewalling of the democratic principle, and his fear of the power of the people attract the needed condemnation, derision and eventual failure in the annals of this constituency’s political history. May God Almighty help us to resist the oppressor’s rule and grant us forever the sweet blessings of liberty and democracy.

Thank you very much.

We will now answer your questions.

Samuel Adjei Sarfo