The Tamale High Court presided over by His Lordship, Justice Richard Kogyapwah, on Wednesday (27th March, 2024) granted a plea of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to settle the Walewale constituency parliamentary primary stalemate out of court.
The party believes out of court settlement is the best way to go in order to safeguard peace and unity among the people while finding an amicable solution to the impasse.
Therefore, the NPP’s Director of Elections, Evans Nimako, who appeared in court yesterday, requested the court for a period of six weeks to address the matter using the alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
“My Lord, you will see today that there are series of motions before you. The NPP has reached out to us (plaintiff) to plead for the matter to be settled out of court. The NPP Director of Elections himself has appeared in court today” Lawyer for the plaintiff, Hajia Lariba Zuwera, informed the presiding Judge.
Justice Richard Kogyapwah after hearing the submission of the Counsel accordingly granted the request and directed the parties to report the conditions of settlement back to the court on May 23, 2024.
Mr. Evans Nimako in a media interview underscored the importance of using in house mechanisms to resolve internal party disputes stating the national leadership of the party are committed to ensuring there is peace and unity in the Walewale constituency.
“We’re looking forward to the bigger picture of winning the 2024 presidential election. You are aware that our presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is from the constituency and we cannot afford to have him as President and not have the seat as well. So, we’re doing everything possible within the party’s means to ensure we have a party in Walewale to be able to win the seat and ensure Dr Mahamudu Bawumia becomes the next President in 2025” he emphasized.
The Director of Elections intimated that the National Executive Committee is the body with the authority to addressing all issues bothering on the parliamentary primaries and assured all stakeholders in this situation will be happy because what will prevail at the end of the day would be the interest of the NPP.
Meanwhile, Lawyer of the Plaintiff, Sylvester Isang, for his part said the case is not over yet in court and subject to the conclusion of the internal resolution process, he warned that no one particularly supporters of the first defendant should create an impression that his client has discontinued the petition.
