Parliamentary aspirants in tango in Nadowli-Kaleo
Interesting times lie ahead for the National Democratic Congress in their parliamentary primary in the Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency following a court application by one candidate seeking to restrain another from contesting the poll.
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David Jawara Banye, one of three candidates challenging long-serving parliamentarian and current Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, for the seat has filed a writ at the High Court in Wa, praying the court to disqualify Roger Galee from the primary.
The last of the four in the race is John Salifu Dumbah.
Latest hurdle
The court case appears the latest hurdle confronting the former employee of the Ghana Health Service who quit his post upon transfer from Upper West Region to Volta Region in 2012 as he prepared to contest the self-confessed Nadowli-Kaleo ‘Omar Bongo.’
Indeed, at the time, Mr Galee looked a credible opponent to Mr Bagbin until his transfer from the region scuttled his test of popularity among the Electoral College.
In his application to the court, Mr Jawara Banye has also demanded that the NDC be restrained from including Mr Galee in the Nadowli-Kaleo parliamentary polls on the basis of a court sentence handed him in 2008.
An ex-convict?
He said in his affidavit in support that Mr Galee — now lecturing at the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies — "is an ex-convict, having been convicted and sentenced by the District Magistrate’s Court, Damongo, in a criminal case entitled ‘The republic vrs Roger Galee and 4 others' on July 1, 2008".
The plaintiff also claimed in the court document that "there have been numerous complaints lodged against the defendant with the police in Wa over charges of assault against nurses of the Wa Government Hospital when the defendant was the hospital administrator".
For all of those, he said, "several attempts to bring the status of the defendant" to the notice of the party "for internal redress have been unsuccessful", and that even if Mr Galee eventually succeeds in his parliamentary ambitions, "his election can be successfully contested and same set aside".
He then argued that per the electoral laws of Ghana, Mr Galee "is not qualified to hold the honourable office of a Member of Parliament", quoting copiously from Section C of Paragraph 2, of Article 94 of the 1992 Constitution, which states that a person shall not be qualified to be a Member of Parliament if he has been convicted of treason, fraud, dishonesty or moral turpitude, among other such crimes.
Efforts to reach Mr Galee for his comments proved futile as close confidants said he was deeply engrossed in his campaign for the now postponed polls.
