THE Greater Accra Regional Vetting Committee of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has disqualified four persons from contesting in the forthcoming primaries.
It was, however, undecided on Mr Mohammed Ras Mubarak of Ablekuma North and noted that it had left the decision as to whether he should contest on the party’s ticket or not to the national executive of the party.
The committee also suspended a branch chairman of the Ayawaso Central Constituency of the party for misconduct. It explained that the branch chairman was suspended because he raised issues about the membership card he had issued to Mr Franklin Mensah and alleged that Mr Mensah had not fulfilled his promise after acquiring the card.
“We found that untenable since it cannot be proven and moved to have the branch chairman suspended for his mischief.”
The four suspended aspirants are the former Chairman of the Confiscated Assets Committee, Mr Carl Wilson, who was vying for the slot in the Weija Constituency; Mr Delali Emmanuel Brempong in the Ayawaso West Wuogon; Augustine Ken Eshum and Andrew Okaikoi, both of Okaikoi North.
Last Friday, a Deputy General Secretary of the party in-charge of primaries, Mr George Lawson, told the Daily Graphic that more than 10 people out of those who filed their nominations to contest in the primaries in the orphaned constituencies of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been disqualified.
However, he failed to disclose the names of those who have been disqualified and their constituencies. The party has also directed the Tano North Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region to open fresh nomination since all the aspirants did not follow laid down regulations.
THE National Democratic Congress has set November 19 and 26, 2011, for the primaries to select aspirants for orphan constituencies in the northern and southern sectors, respectively.
The northern sector consists of the Ashanti, Northern, Brong Ahafo, Upper West and Upper East regions while the southern is made up of the Greater Accra, Central, Western, Volta and Eastern regions.
According to a copy of the Greater Accra Vetting Committee report, which was made available to Daily Graphic, “Carl Wilson’s past issues with confiscated (auctioned) cars and his withdrawal from the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff’s office were raised and his answers were unacceptable since he could not give tangible reasons for the President’s decision to ask for his removal. He also declined to comment.”
The report said having such a high profile case against him, the NDC would be sending wrong signals that it condoned “ wrongdoings if any or not” and added that even if he was allowed to go through, opponents of the NDC would use it against the party and the electorates would also reject him during the 2012 parliamentary elections.
The report said a Daily Graphic publication of July11, 2006, about Delali Emmanuel Brempong’s involvement in an alleged fraud was shown to him but he denied his involvement and claimed that the police had since cleared him.
According to him, he was rather a victim. He was asked to provide proof of verification.
The report described Mr Brempong’s issue as serious and therefore his nomination must be rejected without hesitation, otherwise it would spell doom for the party.
At Okaikoi North, serious allegations were levelled against Mr Andrew Okaikoi, including some publications to that effect. Others were raised by one of the contestants for the slot, Mr Augustus Ken Eshun.
“Andrew Okaikoi’s candidature in our opinion will pose many challenges to the party and at best will be an albatross on the neck of the NDC. Our opponents will use this to destabilise our campaign and even resort to the law courts for disqualification,” the report said.
The report indicated that since Mr Augustus Eshun himself found grounds for going public on someone’s disqualification, his admission of forged signatures which was also in the public domain should not be taken lightly.
“By using forged signatures on his nomination form, he has committed fraud. In his submission ,he admitted the offence of forgery and as such he cannot be recommended for approval.”
The report said the panel raised issues of various published articles and radio utterances by Mr Ras Mubarak castigating President Mills, the NDC government and the NDC leadership.
It said Mr Mubarak denied being malicious and explained that he was only offering constructive criticism and that he had on some occasions commended President Mills. “He later apologised when it was pointed out to him that some of his actions and utterances were in bad taste and politically wrong.”
“We recommend Mr Nathaniel Addo for approval. As for Ras Mubarak, we leave the decision to the party leadership.”
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