‘I’ll snatch seat from NPP’

A FORMER Executive member of the Tema East Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Daniel Titus-Glover, has announced his intention to stand as an independent candidate in the 2004 parliamentary election to ensure that the NPP lost the seat.

Titus-Glover, who led an investigation into alleged malpractices at the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) in the award of contract to fumigate the Kpone Refuse dump, was sacked from the party for allegedly leaking information on the scandal to the media.

“I am going to use my following to teach the party a bitter lesson”, he said in an interview with The Chronicle from his base at Fondon. He said that it was unbelievable that the NPP was becoming intolerant about issues they accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of doing.

He mentioned the party’s attempt to defend everything including corruption involving some state officials.

He advised the President to purge his administration of sycophants now instead of waiting till the end of his tenure of office to be dragged before the people to defend some actions.

To execute his plans, the former assembly member who claimed that the party ganged up against him in the last assembly elections to be kicked from the TMA because of his outspokenness, said “I intend standing as an independent candidate for the Tema East constituency”.

Titus-Glover said it was unfortunate that the TMA had lost its focus of serving the people of Tema and had allowed the city to deteriorate in terms of social facilities, gradually becoming a slum.

The former leader of the Tema Youth Association said the NPP had refused to learn from the past when the NDC, then in power, thought it could remain so forever only to be kicked out by the people.

Titus-Glover, a pillar in the NPP campaign team for both the presidential and parliamentary elections in 1996 and 2000 fell out with his uncle, Mr. Ishmael Ashitey, Tema East MP and Minister of State over the nomination of Mr. Evans Ashon Narh as Tema Municipal Chief Executive.

The same issue brought a rift between Tema West MP and Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Mr. Abraham Osei Aidoo and Mr. Ashitey.

Since the Chief Executive took office, Mr. Osei Aidoo has hardly attended assembly meetings.

The Tema West is also boiling, with some disgruntled senior party members anxious to field an independent candidate to contest Mr. Osei Aidoo in 2004.

According to them, he had lost touch with the people in the same way the Ashaiman MP Mr. Emmanuel Teye was battling his people.

The party was doubtful if Mr. Teye could retain the seat because the NDC seemed to be re-uniting for the 2004 encounter in the constituency. The party’s hope, however, was on the likely creation of Adenta as a constituency where its winning votes came from in the last elections.

In the meantime, rumours are rife at Ashaiman that former NDC MP, Aheto, who was blamed for the party’s loss in 2000 has joined camp with one Tony Apenyo to push him against popular Alfred Agbesi who is gunning for the NDC primaries.

Should that happen it might split the NDC again and Mr. Teye would capitalize on it once more to retain the seat. Aheto and Tony, however, denied their alliance.