ADDRESS BY MR. PAUL AFOKO, NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) AT A PRESS CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY AUGUST 19, 2014 Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media and thank you for honoring our invitation. The General Secretary of the NPP, Mr. Kwabena Agyepong and my good self invited you here to address certain pertinent matters that have recently arisen in our party. It has not been our habit to address party matters in the open but it appears that certain officers of the party are more comfortable discussing party matters in the media usually with some misrepresentations and misinformation and so we are compelled to come on the same platform to set the records straight. Indeed, since the NPP has nothing to hide, we are considering opening our National Executive Committee and National Council Meetings to the media so that all of you can attend and witness how these meetings are conducted except that very sensitive issues will be discussed in your absence. This way, the seeming monopoly being enjoyed by one media house and the attendant twist that usually accompany their reportage will hopefully come to an end. Ladies and Gentlemen, as you will recall, during our last intra party elections campaign, Kwabena and I promised to be neutral and honest in the discharge of our duties. We promised to work for the party and the party only. We also promised to create a level playing field for all who seek to play roles in our great party. The Delegates of our party accepted our message and voted massively to make me Chairman and leader of the party and Kwabena Agyepong the General Secretary. It’s been nearly five months since we returned from Tamale and every thing we have done has been to unite and strengthen the party with the aim of enhancing our chances of winning the 2016 general elections. Unfortunately many of our actions have been met with some unnecessary suspicion and sometimes outright resistance. There are many things we could talk about and indeed will talk about in due course. But today we want to limit ourselves to only three issues. namely; § The Removal of Mr. Kojo Opare Hammond, the former Director for Finance and Administration. § The Elections and Composition of the National Council of the Party. § The Appointment of Deputy Communication Directors and Perry Okudzeto’s leave. Mr.Opare Hammond Mr.Opare Hammond appeared not to want to cooperate with the new executives. He had the tendency to withhold information from the General Secretary and myself, especially information relating to the party’s finances and other assets. On one occasion, Mr. Hammond caused a huge embarrassment to the National Executives when at a National Executive Committee meeting it was found out that a compendium of some Party assets had actually been handed over to Mr. Opare Hammond which he blatantly refused to disclose to the General Secretary and myself. Ladies and Gentlemen, it was also found out that even after Tamale, where new executives had been elected, Mr. Opare Hammond continued to make withdrawals from the party’s accounts without authorization from the General Secretary or myself. These withdrawals are still a subject of investigations and the results will be made known to party members and the general public in due course. Again it was also found out that Mr. Opare Hammond was involved with the companies that were responsible for the registration of party members and that he had succeeded in getting the party to waive its share of the registration fee. Mr. Opare Hammond also awarded to himself the contract to print accreditation cards to the Tamale Conference at a whooping sum of GHc13,000.00 even though a party member offered to print the accreditations free of charge for the party. This is a serious conflict of interest situation. Mr. Opare Hammond was given GHc38, 000 to set up the event secretariat in Tamale but has failed to render accounts since the Tamale Conference. This subject is also being investigated and the results will soon be brought to members of the party and the general pub lic. For these reasons and more, Mr. Opare Hammond was relieved of his post. This is just the tip of the iceberg the rest of the story will be told when we come back to you. Ladies and Gentlemen, our next stop is the Elections and Composition of the National Council of the Party. The constitution of our party clearly states that fifty per cent of regional representatives to the National Council should be elected and that is exactly what we directed our Regional Chairmen to follow. But this was also met with resistance accompanied with insults. But the framers of the constitution must have found it absurd to allow a National Council which is the second highest decision making body of the party to be hand picked and to give instructions and directives to an elected executive and that is why they insisted that these people should be elected. Unfortunately however some people were bent on hand picking representatives and so they went on radio and television stations to malign us and to say that we wanted the representatives to be elected because we had an agenda. The Party’s constitution says ELECT the people and as managers of the party we want to obey the constitution. That part of the story is now history. This flagrant disregard for the party’s constitution is seen in many activities of the party, including the management of its finances and assets. For example, as we speak there is a forex exchange account, belonging to the party with three signatories none of whom are elected executives or appointed officers. These same persons happen to be the Directors of the Holding Company in whose name the party’s campaign vehicles were registered. None of these vehicles can be traced now and yet the party has been given a bill of USD2million (GHc8million) to settle. Finally ladies and gentlemen the most recent appointments of deputy directors of communication and our decision to ask Perry Okudzeto to proceed on leave has sparked off yet another round of bashing of the General Secretary and with scant regard for the party’s reputation . Let me hasten to add that I am aware of these decisions and that as Leader of this Party; I actually gave the General Secretary these directives. I want to put it on record that Mr. Okudzeto’s substantive position is Deputy Director of Communications. I am also surprised to hear some members of the Steering Committee say that they were never consulted. These appointments were brought to at least two Steering Committee meetings and discussed at length. Ladies and Gentlemen, the real issue here is that some people will prefer to have a lame duck Chairman and General Secretary. For such people no decision should be taken by Paul Afoko or Kwabena Agyepong. Indeed some have even suggested that no actions should be taken at all and that we should all wait for a flagbearer, to be elected so that that flagbearer will make appointments. That will not only be unconstitutional but a complete disregard to trust and confidence reposed in us by the Party. Let me make it clear that there will not be any parallel centres of authority in this party. Our party’s constitution is clear on these matters. As Chairman of this party I will not betray the trust reposed in me at Tamale by our Honorable delegates. I promised to work hard to make anyone that the party chooses as its flagbearer President come 2016. I still stand by this promise. I consider balancing all party structures as a sure means of uniting the party for the greater fight ahead of us. We will like to take this opportunity to remind all members of the existence of guidelines for the upcoming internal contests for our presidential candidate. I must say that some people including leaders have already flouted these guidelines. Next week, we will inaugurate our standing committees including the disciplinary committee and will refer such cases to it for appropriate action. In conclusion we would like to reassure party members and supporters that we are unperturbed by these calculated attempt to intimidate the leadership of the party from taking t he necessary decisions and actions in the supreme interest of the party (to bend to the whims and caprices of some unseen hand). We will continue to take decisions which we believe will position the party in full flight to ensure we can deliver the much awaited Victory in 2016 that all Ghanaians are yearning for. The NPP is the source of hope for the people of this country and we as a party must conduct ourselves in a manner that will demonstrate to Ghanaians that we are prepared to win the elections and to continue to do the things we have done best in the governance of this country. All hands must therefore be on deck to achieve this goal. Thank you and God bless you for coming NPP shall Live!
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 20:18:19 +0000