NPP crisis divides Minority in Parliament
The front of the Minority in Parliament is divided over whether the embattled General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kwabena Agyepong, and the National Chairman, Mr Paul Afoko, should step aside or resign.
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While some members of the caucus, particularly the leadership, want the two party bigwigs out, others, to a distinctively greater extent those from the Ashanti Region, are against the move.
At a closed-door meeting at the Parliament House last Tuesday, the issue came up for discussion and while some members supported the crafting of a statement calling on Mr Afoko and Mr Agyepong to step aside, others thought it would portray a lack of judgement or wisdom.
Minority Leadership
However, less than 24 hours after the meeting, a letter from the Minority leadership addressed to those at the helm of affairs in the NPP, which states that the caucus wants the two officials out, emerged.
While the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, admitted that such a letter had been authored by the leadership and that the views therein were expressed by majority of the 78 members who attended the meeting, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Obuasi East, Mr Edward Ennin, contended that there was no such position reached after the consideration of the matter.
Mr Ennin told the Daily Graphic that the letter put out by the Minority Leader was full of falsehoods.
"It is a lie. We met alright but what we agreed on is that we do not make any statements to stoke the fire. We agreed that we position ourselves to preach peace, calm people down and then at a later date bring the people involved together and resolve the matter amicably.
“We never agreed on anyone stepping aside and we did not ask anyone to issue a statement on our behalf on the issue. If that is the view of the Minority Leader and his two deputies, they should say so. It is not the view of all of us," he said.
But Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said those who objected to the move were an insignificant minority.
"If a meeting is called and 78 people attend and then out of the 78 only two or three people dissent, is that controversial?” he asked.
He said the decision arrived at had been communicated to the leadership of the party in a letter, but as of 3 p.m. yesterday, none of those to whom the letter was addressed had acknowledged receipt.
Out of respect for them, he said, he did not want to make comments.
"It would be preposterous for some media houses to say they have a copy of the letter and that I should comment and then I go ahead to comment. I must show some respect to the people to whom the letter has been addressed. As a matter of principle, I do not want to comment further,” he said.
Letter
The letter has been signed by the Minority Leader, addressed to Mr Afoko and copied to the Presidential Candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo Addo, members of the Steering Committee and National Executive of the party.
It calls for the stepping aside of the two top party officials and states, among other things, that there is a great degree of mistrust within the leadership of the party as a result of the "declared position of the two".
It added that for sometime now, the party had witnessed considerable tumultuous developments bordering on anarchy because of the actions and inaction of Mr Afoko and Mr Agyapong.
