Although the former Korle Klottey Constituency Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Valentino Nii Noi Nortey is begging for forgiveness for abandoning the party and going independent in the 2016 parliamentary elections, his plea is likely to be rejected by some party members.

Division in the party, prior to the 2016 elections, according to the Constituency Vice Chairman, Alhaji Kamilo, still exists, heightening fears that Mr. Nortey’s come back will be impossible.

“There are still divisions in the party and some people are not even prepared to forgive him [Nii Noi Nortey]. They still have pains in their heart,” he noted.

Interacting with Akwasi Nsiah on Si Me So on Kasapa 102.5 FM recently, Alhaji Kamilo said the sudden departure of Nii Noi from the party greatly cost the fortunes of the elephant family in the 2016 parliamentary elections, believing that had it not been so, the party would have won the seat from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“Once he was a former constituency Chairman who was very influential but distanced himself from the party, he shook our front. I don’t know what influenced his thought to go independent. I believe that he contributed immensely to our defeat in the Korle Klottey constituency. When we were campaigning that we don’t know anybody apart from Lawyer Philip Addison, he was also going round telling people that they should vote for him and Nana Addo. So, you see, we had a problem here and that cost us a lot,” he said. Mr. Nortey recently grabbed the headlines when wrote to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP to forgive him following his intransigence in going independent during the 2016 elections.

The popular grassroots politician won the initial primaries to contest the parliamentary seat on the ticket of the then opposition NPP, but his main contender Philip Addison challenged the outcome of that election in court and won.

In the rerun organized by the party, Lawyer Philip Addison won and became the party’s Parliamentary candidate. An aggrieved Nii Noi Nortey then contested the poll as an independent candidate much against the will of the party as he was prevailed upon by many bigwigs to rescind his decision. At the poll, both Nii Noi Nortey and Addison lost to the NDC’s Zanetor Rawlings.

Speaking to Agoo TV’s Maame Broni on his birthday, Wednesday May 3, 2017, Nii Noi confessed that he regrets his decision and must be forgiven.

“It hasn’t been easy… I will like to use this opportunity to forgive anybody who opposed me and also anyone who I might have offended,” the young politician opined. “When you are young you get people telling you to do all manner of things. However, I want to use this opportunity to ask for forgiveness and especially my political godfather – former President J.A Kufuor. He even called me to rescind my decision [to go independent] but there were a lot of circumstances on the ground which didn’t allow that.”

He empasized: “I want to use this opportunity to apologise to the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because he also called me to rescind my decision and I didn’t listen. I must say it wasn’t an issue of disobedience, but there was a lot of politics on the ground which I can’t go into.

“Yes, I regret going independent. The circumstances which led to that were unfortunate. In life sometimes you have to make some tough decisions. I’m really sorry to the big men I failed to heed their advice.

“I’m apologizing to these big men – Nana Addo, Kufuor, Bawumia – including Anthony Karbo, Mustapha Hamid for all my actions.”

Alhaji Kamilo commenting further said the NPP has learnt a great lesson from Nii Noi’s experience, stressing that never again will they experience such ordeal.

Nevertheless, he said once Nii Noi has apologized, the party should think through and consider his comeback, adding that a single vote can make a difference in an election.