Blay welcomes CPP moves to settle case out of court

The Member of Parliament in the Ellembele Constituency, Mr Frederick Worsemao Armah Blay, has welcomed moves by some elders of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) to settle the impasse between him and the elders of the party out of court.
“I am not a litigant but a lawyer and also amenable to dialogue, ready to iron out our differences out of court but definitely without prejudice to what has happened in Ellembele,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview yesterday.
Mr Blay, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, was speaking on the recent moves by the party executive for an out-of-court settlement of an issue in court between him and the party.
An internal squabble broke out within the CPP over the re-election of Mr Freddie Blay, at a meeting of constituency delegates on August 23, 2008, to represent the party at Ellembele, one of the party’s few strongholds.
Mr Blay has represented the constituency in Parliament since 1996.
Just after the election the Central Committee of the party at its meeting in Accra objected to the election of Mr Blay as the CPP aspirant.
This made Mr Blay to file a suit in an Accra High Court against the CPP and some of its leading members seeking a declaration that the primary held to elect him as the CPP’s parliamentary aspirant was proper, valid and in compliance with the party’s constitution.
The CPP in a counter motion said it had not nullified the primary but objected to Mr Blay’s election.
But during the first hearing of the case, Mr Bright Akwetey, a leading member of the party, pleaded with the court to give the party seven days to resolve its differences with Mr Blay out of court.
Explaining further his reasons to dialogue with the party for amicable settlement, Mr Blay said all the parties involved must also be mindful that while all these problems were going on other opponents of the CPP in the constituency were frantically campaigning.
He was also not happy about the rush to take issues to the press before the individual involved was made aware.