Tamale, August 8, (Caesar), GNA - Mr. Albert Atutiga, Northern Regional chairman of the Convention People's Party (CPP), on Tuesday said the formation of a parallel "Patriots" group in the party was detracting the cause of CPP's agenda.

"There is a group in the CPP calling itself patriots of the party who came to the Northern Region and left the party more divided and this has the tendency of making CPP more unpopular if they do not stop." Mr. Atutiga said in an interview with the GNA in Tamale.

He said the party's agenda was to work and win power in unity, freedom and togetherness and that forming parallel groups within the party would derail the course of CPP.

He said until the "Patriots" group, came from Accra to the Region CPP was united and was in the process of mobilizing more supporters for the party to win the 2008 elections but that the formation and visit of the group created confusion in the Region.

He said the group ignored laid down party structures in the Region and picked their own party constituency and regional executives as well as opened new offices other than the known CPP offices and leaders. Mr Atutiga expressed worry that the actions of the group would not yield the desired objectives of the party and called for sanity to prevail so that the party could achieve victory in 2008.

He said the party constitution did not allow anybody to use the name of the party for personal interests and that what the group was doing was an attempt to form a party out of CPP and had started the process of taking its following away.

He appealed to supporters and well-wishers not to mind any group visiting them in the absence of their elected executives and called for more decency in CPP's activities.