Afoko’s ‘disqualification’…

By A. A. Yayra

Trapped in a web of possible disintegration arising out of politics of identity, the opposition New Patriotic Party has aggravated its dreadful political fortunes by treading on an ill-fated cause intended to disqualify one of the leading contestants to the position of National Chairman.

In a move that reinforces claims that the tribal supremacists in the NPP never relish a non-Akan leading the party, reports suggest some persons are trying to use what many described as a non-sustainable claim to knock out Mr Paul Afoko from the National Chairmanship race.

Mr Afoko, an accomplished business magnate and National Council member of the party representing the Upper East Region, who is also a right hand man of former President Kufuor, has been tipped as the best candidate among the other contestants to dislodge incumbent chairman, Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey.

Sending strong signals to the party leadership to use all available legitimate means to defend himself should the supposed petitioners succeed in convincing the vetting committee to disqualify him, information picked by The Al-Hajj indicates that followers and party members sympathetic to Mr Paul Afoko’s cause would not mind stepping out of the NPP fold in the event he is disqualified.

Sources close to the business magnate disclosed to this paper that the Kufuor protégé would accept a disqualification if it was founded on solid and genuine grounds, but anything short of that would portend a tragic political happening in the NPP, especially when the leadership of the party has over the years tried tirelessly to clean the Akan tag on the party.

Information bandied in the media and later confirmed by the NPP’s Director of Elections, Mr Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, revealed how some unnamed persons who are bent on getting Afoko disqualified have petitioned the vetting committee over undisclosed incident but believed to be related to a supposed treasonable offence in 1982.

Feeling the heat of a possible Afoko Chairmanship, the unnamed petitioners, who are alleged to be doing the bidding of Nana Akufo Addo, Jake Obetsebi Lampety and Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, have petitioned the NPP’s vetting committee to disqualify Mr Afoko.

Following the attempt to use the incident to deny him opportunity of contesting the Chairmanship, sources closed to the beleaguered northern politician have hinted The Al-Hajj, the opposition New Patriotic Party risks breakup if the diabolic act prevails.

It would be recalled, a similar incident in 1979 led to the breakaway of Paa Willie and his supporters to form the United National Convention (UNC) from the NPP’s forebears, Popular Front Party.