Correspondence from Eastern Region

Some disgruntled National Democratic Congress (NDC) faithful in the Akuapem-South Constituency of the Eastern Region are up in arms against the Constituency chairman, demanding that the national executive body institute punitive measures against him.

Kojo Benny has incurred the wrath of the rank and file of the party with accusations bordering on anti-party behaviour, cronyism and taking decisions deemed not in the party's best interest.

The petition, which highlighted grievances of 72 out of the 104 serving ward coordinators and branch chairmen, accused the chairman of failing to heed recommendations made by higher authorities to elect representatives from the various branches to the Assembly committee.

Signed by the 72 peeved chairmen and addressed to the Eastern Regional chairman of the NDC, the petitioners cited "significant discontentment" among party members as well as gross disrespect by Mr Benny towards prominent party members, including Madam Glenda, who has made significant contributions towards the success of the NDC in Akuapem-South.

"Despite the substantial contributions our branch made to the party's recent electoral success, chairman Kojo Benny has shown a consistent lack of regard for our members...I hereby write to you to remove or suspend chairman Kojo Benny of Akuapem-South NDC," parts of the petition read."

Furthering, it says, "We believe that the behaviour exhibited by chairman Kojo Benny is detrimental to the unity and progress of the party."

The agitated party folks say efforts to engage their leader on their concerns have proven futile, with the latter failing to cooperate with them.

A member who identified himself as David Kwaku, expressing his frustration with the chairman, noted: "We're not happy with the conduct of the chairman; he doesn't respect us, he has no regard for us, he refuses to hold meetings with us."

He accused Mr Benny of abandoning the rank and file of the NDC for his cronies.

Another member who identified himself as Sulemana similarly accused Benny of neglect and nepotism in the handling of opportunities targeting committed members of the party in the Constituency.

He fumed, "Whenever stuffs are being brought here, he, in collusion with others, sack faithful members in the interest of his favourites.

A branch women organizer at Pakro told GhanaWeb in an interview that the party has abandoned the rank and file of the NDC after the December polls.

"Nobody has even come here to express appreciation to us after the elections. If they dare us, we'll meet them with a demonstration," threatened the agitated organizer.

"We hear some appointments are being made, we mobilized a lot of votes for the party in the elections, but we've been neglected... we're very agitated."

She said several letters written in an attempt to reach out to the chairman on the issues have yielded no response from him.
Chairman's respect.

Meanwhile, Kojo Benny, when reached for his reaction, dismissed the accusations, attributing the agitations to certain aggrieved individuals within the party.

He explained that the only appointments made available to the Constituency are those for government appointees to the Assembly whose selection is based on documented criteria.

"The party has been in power for only two months, what opportunities are they being denied for people to start raising such concerns?" He quizzed.
Responding to allegations of single-handedly selecting 10 beneficiaries for national security appointments, the chairman denied involvement in the selection process, adding that the allocations were fairly distributed."

He insisted that these were opportunists within the party who only sought their parochial interest, not that of the NDC.