Some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is demanding removal from the party the Pusiga Constituency Chairman, Issaka Seidu and parliamentary candidate for the 2024 elections, Hanan Aludiba Abdul-Wahab.
In a petition addressed to the Regional Executive Committee of the party, the petitioners accused the parliamentary candidate and Constituency Chairman of anti-party conduct particularly against the party’s flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
This comes on the back of a video in which Issaka Seidu is seen allegedly campaigning for the parliamentary candidate while asking electorates to vote for the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC’s) flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama against Dr. Bawumia, who is his party’s candidate.
According to the petitioners, the Constituency Chairman made these anti-party comments during a campaign at Sarabogo in the constituency in the presence of the parliamentary candidate.
They said, “When all this drama was unfolding on record which is attached to this complaint, the Parliamentary Candidate took no step whatsoever to stop the misconduct of the Constituency Chairman”.
“In fact he was all smiles, clapping in support of that unconstitutional act, and excited about the campaign against the Presidential Candidate of the Party Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia”.
This, they say, was an obvious endorsement of the campaign against the NPP flagbearer by the parliamentary candidate.
Buttressing their position, the petitioners cited the parliamentary candidate’s address during the commissioning of an Astro Turf undertaken by the NPP government in the area, stating that he failed to even mention the flagbearer in his speech much less campaign for his election.
They added, “There appears to be a grand scheme in the Pusiga Constituency to relegate the campaign of the Presidential Candidate of the NPP Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to the back and focusing the campaign in that constituency on only the Parliamentary Candidate of the Party Hanan Aludiba Abdul-Wahab”.
“This is evident in the recent protest by some youth group in the constituency when the District Chief Executive led some elders of the Party in the constituency to instruct the youth group to remove posters and party paraphernalia of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in the constituency”.
It is the petitioners’ position that the two officers of the party, by their conduct and supposed endorsement of a candidate other than the party’s official presidential candidate, breached Article 3 (9)(1) of the NPP Constitution.
The said Article stipulates that, “Member of the Party’ who stands as an independent candidate against the officially elected member of the Party, or who joins or declares his or her support for another Political Party’ or for an independent candidate, when the Party has sponsored a candidate in a general or by-election, automatically forfeits his or her membership of the Party”.
They, therefore, wants the party to act in accordance with the Constitution by declaring that the Constituency Chairman and parliamentary have forfeited their membership of the party on their basis of their conduct.
