The opposition NPP’s Northern Regional Chairman says he was just joking when he said a committee would be set up to hound four Delegates, who voted for former trades Minister, Alan Kyeremanten, in breach of their oath to vote for two-time flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, in Sunday’s mini congress.

In a statement issued almost immediately after reiterating on air that the rank-breakers will be hounded and penalised, a remorseful Daniel Bugri Naabu beat a hasty retreat saying: “I would like to place on record that my light-hearted attempt at humour has been misconstrued and in that regard I unconditionally withdraw those comments, which were meant to be in jest”.

“I have no authority to set up a committee to investigate who did or did not vote for a particular candidate and so no such committee can or will be set up”, Naabu said in his volte-face.

“Furthermore, no oaths were sworn to coerce people to vote for Nana Akufo-Addo. I am a democrat and part of a party that believes in democracy. We believe in the right of every individual to exercise their democratic rights”, he clarified.

Hours before the apologetic retraction, a riled and befuddled Naabu was heard on air saying he could not understand why the delegates defied their spiritual oaths against voting for any other candidate except two-time presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo.

In that interview on private FM Station, Citi, Friday, Naabu insisted that all the delegates of the region swore on the Bible and Quran to cast their ballot for Akufo-Addo, in fulfilment of his (Naabu’s) personal promise to deliver the entire Region to the former foreign affairs Minister.

He told the station that the treacherous rank-breakers betrayed the Region’s cause to secure 100% votes for Akufo-Addo, just as their colleagues in the Upper West Region did.

Before that interview, Naabu had expressed similar anger over the same issue when the party's youth organisers and their deputies from the 31 constituencies in the Region called on him at his Fuo residence in the regional capital, Tamale.

Akufo-Addo garnered 62 out of 71 votes cast in the mini congress, which was held to prune down the number of aspirants from seven to five, per the party’s constitution, which requires that such a congress be held if more than five people contested the slot.