Opinions of Thursday, 19 September 2019

Columnist: Kwabena Nimo

Lies and mud-slinging against Subin MP must stop

Eugene Boakye Antwi, MP, Subin Eugene Boakye Antwi, MP, Subin

I have read, with amusement, a story written and published on Ghanaweb on the 17th day of September, 2019, in which Honourable Eugene Boakye Antwi, the Member of Parliament for Subin and the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, is being accused of suspending and dismissing Polling Station officers in the constituency.

In the said story, the Honourable MP is alleged to have suspended 47 delegates and dismissed 62 more ahead of the NPP parliamentary primaries.

According to the story, the MP, fearing that these people do not support his re-election bid, has taken a unilateral decision to sweep them aside to pave way for an easy second term in office.

The story uses Hon. Boakye Antwi's interview on Hello FM in which he gave details of the breaches and infractions committed by the suspended and dismissed polling station executives as proof of his complicity in their predicament.

First and foremost, I find these suspension and dismissal assertions to be laughable. Much as it is unconvincing, it also fails to realize that a Member of Parliament is not the one to carry out such mandates.

The NPP, like any political party, has rules and regulations governing it. It has structures it works with. Only the Disciplinary Committee can suspend or dismiss party members or delegates, not an MP.

The decision to grant an interview to Hello FM was borne out of the accusations levelled against him, and if he were conversant with the issues regarding what led to their excommunication, he commits no crime, and this does not make him culpable for their suspensions and dismissals.

As a constituent, I have observed, from afar, how certain characters within the Subin Constituency are deliberately tarnishing the image of Hon. Eugene Boakye Antwi for their own parochial interests.

They have realized that but to engage in such smear campaigns, they cannot make any impact in the yet-to-be-held parliamentary primary in Subin.

These characters, in my subsequent write-ups, will be exposed for the world to see who they are and the devilish motives they have towards the MP, the Subin Constituency and the NPP as a whole.

Kwabena Nimo The Subin Vineyard.