Politics of Friday, 16 March 2007

Source: Chronicle

Nana Akomea In Hot Waters

Reports filtering in to the desks of the Chronicle newspaper indicate that the New Patriotic Party MP for Okaikoi South in the Greater Accra Region, Nana Akomea has incurred the wrath and indignation of regional executives of the party over his role in organising a delegates’ conference to pass a vote of no confidence in his Constituency Chairman, Rexford Frimpong.

Regional executives who are not enthused about the conduct of the MP, also former Minister of Information, summoned an emergency meeting with all the regional executives, District Chief Executives and MPs in the region to decide on the fate of Nana Akomea, a long time resident of Kaneshie from his home town of Akim Abuakwa.

Regional executives say that the MPs action was to consolidate his fourth term bid and put him in pole position to try and swing delegates towards his preferred candidate for President, the MP for Abuakwa South and Minister for Foreign Affairs. Now Nana Akomea risks sanction and or suspension alongside polling station chairmen who attended the meeting. Nana Akomea wrote a letter inviting the polling station chairmen: “The Executive Committee of the NPP Okaikoi South Constituency writes to summon you to an emergency delegate’s conference. “This summons is in response to the mandate and command placed on the Executive Committee by Article 10 of the NPP constitution as a result of the written notice/petition from forty percent of constituency delegates delivered on Monday 12th of February 2007, the MP announced.

At the meeting which was held under the auspices of the MP last Sunday, one Issa Oman Sanda was elected as the new chairman of the constituency after he had polled 66 votes as against 3, with 1 abstention. With regards to the MP, the regional executives are insisting on discipline and are unlikely to pardon the MP as happened in the case of the MP for Tema West, Ishmael Ashittey, who was embarked on a similar adventure last year.

Party executives say that Nana Akomea had been disrespectful to party officials and revealed that such conduct came to the fore when he was summoned to meet with party executives, including the general secretary of the party, Nana Ohene Ntow. However, at the said meeting, the MP ‘snubbed’ Nana Ohene Ntow when the latter was drawing the former’s attention to illegalities in his action. Currently, the regional executives of the party are striving to ensure that MPs did not arrogate to themselves powers which the constitution does not endow them with.

The executives indicated that they are trying to follow the constitution of the party but expressed reservations of how the MP had violated the constitution. According to them, the party’s constitution is explicitly clear that no MP has the right to preside over meetings, let alone organize meetings with the constituency executives without the authority of the constituency chairman which would be communicated to the party members by the secretary of the constituency.