The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) will not allow itself to be blackmailed by “noises” and demonstrations by some members of the party with regards to the appointment of District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives (MMDCEs), John Boadu, acting General Secretary of the party, has said.
His comments follow the besieging of the home of the party’s Greater Accra regional chairman, Ishmael Ashitey, by some Tema East supporters to protest against what they said was his total bias in the selection of candidates for MMDCE positions.
Mr Ashitey, who is also the Greater Accra regional minister-designate is accused of planting his favourites in the various positions. Some party members also accused the leaders of sidelining women in the appointment process.
Speaking at a press conference as part of efforts to explain the modalities to party supporters, Mr Boadu said: “We made a commitment that appointments by Nana Akufo-Addo will involve a lot of women, so, if there are no women involved, we will headhunt some of them and make sure that we satisfy the broad majority of our population which are women, so, these are the conditions and I think that you will bear with us.
“If there is any problem that anybody raises, our doors are open to any complaints. I don’t have any interest in a particular district; my interest is in the party – that is all. And that one, if we take the decision, it is a decision that has been taken by the party and we are going to defend it.
“We are not going to allow ourselves to be blackmailed by noise and demonstrations. We will make sure that everything that will be done is done in the interest of the party and party people must understand that this is the position.”
He added: “Stakeholders in the various districts are consulted – chiefs, opinion leaders and all. … It’s a limited appointment, a lot more of our people will wish to be appointed even though the numbers involved are limited. So, you will hear one or two comments from our people, which is understandable.
“Most of the things that came about are as a result of lack of communication amongst our people… [but] that issue has been resolved . We are also getting ourselves ready to get our MMDCEs in place and the process is just the same as the government appointees that we did.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
