There is a serious friction within the governing New Patriotic Party in the Nanton Constituency in the northern region. The NPP Member of Parliament for the area, Alhaji Mohammed Hardi Tuferu, District Chief Executive, Mr. Abdulai Murtada and Constituency Chairman, Alhaji Abukari Inusah, have been accused of manipulation, allegedly, to suit their parochial interest in the wake of the impending internal elections.
The internal squabble started after President Nana Akufo-Addo appointed the Constituency Secretary as the Nanton District Chief Executive in 2021.
According to the Assistant Secretary, Alhassan Abdul-Lateef, the DCE after his appointment failed to resign as required in the party’s constitution.
“He has not found it prudent to invite us for a meeting as constituency executives to inform about his appointment. Some people just want to do things whatever they want against the party’s constitution – because Article 6(13) of the party’s constitution requires him to submit his resignation and the constituency executive committee will meet to appoint someone to replace but nothing of that sort has happened” he said
“This not the first time such thing is happening in the constituency. There is a precedent to that; when the current NABCo Regional Coordinator resigned as our constituency secretary, the brought his resignation and we met as executive committee. The letter was read to us and each member had the opportunity to even read personally before the assistant secretary then was appointed to act in that capacity. So what has changed? Are we trying to suggest what we did then was an error and so we want to correct an error?”
But the District Chief Executive in a separate interaction denied any wrongdoing and told THE CUSTODIAN that he resigned from his post on 21st October, 2021.
“I resigned to the Constituency Chairman and copied the Regional Chairman” he affirmed.
He however challenged any aggrieved member to use internal party mechanism to seek redress if they think he has done anything in violation of the NPP constitution.
The constituency chairman, Alhaji Abukari Inusah, corroborated the information of the DCE, stating, “I have received his letter of resignation and accordingly we have also in the last two or three weeks appointed our constituency treasurer as the secretary”.
But the assistant secretary said this was factually inaccurate and insisted the DCE still conduct business as the Constituency Secretary.
“If he has resigned, how comes on he went to withdraw an amount of GHS3000 from the constituency party bank accounts on January 24, 2022” he queried.
He further provided several dates of bank transactions that the DCE allegedly conducted in the capacity as constituency secretary.
Meanwhile, Article 6(13) of the NPP constitution states: “Any vacancy which may occur for whatever reason in the membership of the Constituency Executive Committee shall be filled in the case of the Constituency Chairperson by the 1st Constituency Vice Chairperson; in the case of 1st Constituency Vice Chairperson by the 2nd Vice Chairperson, and in the case of the 2nd Constituency Vice Chairperson, Constituency Secretary and Constituency Treasurer, by election by the Executive Committee of another officer to hold such office.”
It continued that, “In the case of any other Constituency Officer, the Constituency Executive Committee shall appoint somebody to act. Any person elected or appointed to fill a vacancy shall vacate his or her office at the same time as the other Constituency Officers at the end of the term of four (4) years. In the case of the Financial Secretary, the Constituency Executive Committee shall appoint someone to act in his or her place until a substantive appointment is made”.
