COOPERATE OR QUIT

-Hackman cautions NPP Chairman

Kwabena Amankwah

Hackman Owusu Agyeman, Member of Parliament for New Juaben North constituency, has urged the Eastern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Samuel Annor, to cooperate with the rest of the executive for the forward march of the party or quit if he is unprepared to help promote the cause of the party.

In an exclusive interview, Mr Owusu Agyeman warned that if the Chairman did not refrain from his actions which are said to be inimical to the interest of the party in the Eastern Region, “the party will have no option than to censure him and pass a vote of no confidence against him for the Region to move forward.”

The warning comes in the wake of accusations from the Chairman’s colleague-regional executives and executives of the New Juaben North that he is pursuing his personal agenda to the detriment of the party in the Region.

Party executives at all levels in the New Juaben North constituency last week staged a demonstration against Dr Annor over his attempt to remove them from office on grounds of alleged fraudulent elections, and to conduct fresh elections, ostensibly to allow his cronies take over the constituency to further his political ambition of becoming the MP for the area.

His action has set him on collision course with the rest of the regional executives who have distanced themselves from his decision, and further vowed to resist his effort to handle the party as his personal property.

“It is clear that the actions of Dr Annor are undermining the work of the party in the Region, and we will not sit down for just one individual to have his way to the detriment of the party,” Mr Owusu Agyeman warmed.

The MP accused the party Chairman of constantly fomenting trouble since he joined the party.

“Our constituency has never known peace since he joined the party, all because of his desire to become MP. Sometimes I wonder whether he is a mole planted by the NDC to create problems, because he and all his family belonged to the NDC before I personally

convinced him to come to the NPP,” he lamented.

Mr Owusu Agyeman believes his party’s Regional Chairman “has not completely shelved himself of his NDC characteristics. He even put up independent candidates against the party in the 2008 elections; they used his boys as polling agents and for demonstrations and court cases.”

In an interview with the GNA last Monday, Dr Annor accused the MP of being the mastermind of the alleged fraudulent election which has been at the centre of the problems in the New Juaben North constituency.

But Mr Owusu Agyeman insists the accusations, as well as the attempt to annul the elections, are borne out of the Chairman’s ignorance of “basic knowledge of the party’s constituency and law.”

“It is true there was a petition against the elections, but the petition was dealt with by the then Regional Executive of which he was the Treasurer. It was the same people elected at that level who joined others to elect constituency officers who eventually took part in the elections that saw him as the Regional Chairman. If he thought the elections were fraudulent then why did he take part, and also put up a slate of candidates, including his own brother, at the constituency level?” he wondered.

Mr Owusu Agyeman denied claims that he was the cause of the problems in the New Juaben North constituency, stressing “as the only surviving founding officer of the party, I won’t do anything to the detriment of a party I was part of at its birth.”

He gave the assurance that he would not do anything to disturb the focus and cohesion of the party, neither would he lose focus as MP, but would work in harmony with others to further the party’s quest of wrestling power from the ruling National Democratic Congress in the 2012 elections.