Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency in the Greater Accra Region are fuming with anger over what they alleged to be attempts to impose a parliamentary candidate on them.
The angry grassroots, including women groups in all the 13 wards of the constituency, are angry to the core, threatening a naked demonstration over the attempts being made by some faceless party officials to disqualify two of the three candidates who have filed to contest the parliamentary primary for one to go unopposed.
They are warning that it would be suicidal for the party leadership to impose any candidate on the people if they do not want to lose the seat again in 2024.
No Vetting
Three aspirants contesting for the NDC slot are private legal practitioner, Moses Baafi Acheampong, business mogul and movie producer, Frederick Nuamah, and actor, John Setor Dumelo.
The three have filed their nominations to contest the parliamentary primaries of the party in the area scheduled for May 13, 2023.
Interestingly, last week, the party postponed vetting of the three aspirants indefinitely over claims of discrepancies on their nomination forms, which it said needed to be investigated even though all the other constituencies in the Greater Accra Region had a successful vetting.
Daily Guide reports that, there are plots by certain individuals within the NDC to disqualify Frederick Nuamah and Lawyer Moses Baafi Acheampong for no apparent reason, to pave the way for the other aspirant who lost the last election to the incumbent MP, Lydia Seyram Alhassan of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Unopposed
The supposed party officials are adopting overt and covert tactics to disqualify the two aspirants in order for John Dumelo to go unopposed.
This development has heightened tension and angered the women groups in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency, who are threatening a massive naked demonstration to express their displeasure and disagreement with the plot being undertaken by party officials to impose John Dumelo on the constituency.
According to them, John Dumelo cannot be trusted, as he is unreliable and they would not allow him to take them for granted again.
They alleged that John Dumelo fled the constituency immediately after the last elections and refused to show appreciation to the grassroots but rather, chose to add salt to injury by attempting to use illegal means to get to Parliament.
“If he thinks that he is popular, why is he afraid of going through the voting process? We would never allow him to go unopposed. If they dare, we would march with our bare bodies to the National party headquarters for them to see that we are not joking and we are serious,” one of the aggrieved women warned.
They pointed out that such actions affect the fortunes of the party, as it embarks on the conduct of its presidential and parliamentary primaries in the various constituencies across the country.
A women’s leader of Dzorwulu Central, Experanza Cudjoe, told Daily Guide that it would be unfair, undemocratic and against the fundamental human rights of the grassroots of the party to be denied the opportunity to freely elect a parliamentary candidate of their choice to contest the 2024 general elections of the party.
According to Madam Experanza, John Dumelo abandoned the grassroots of Ayawaso West Wuogon for close to three years for greener pastures at Guan in the Oti Region, but after his expedition failed, he came back trying to use dubious means to impose himself on the constituency against the will of majority of the delegates.
Touching on the claim that the actor performed well in the 2020 parliamentary elections by closing the gap between himself and the incumbent MP, Lydia Seyram Alhassan, Madam Experanza described the assertion as false.
She explained that, the former parliamentary candidate of the party, Kwame Awuah-Darko did better against the late MP, Kyeremanteng Agyarko than John Dumelo.
Giving further information to buttress her claim, she said former President John Mahama garnered more votes than John Dumelo in the 2020 elections, albeit parliamentary candidate being more closer to the voters than the former President.
“The grassroots who they are trying to marginalise today are the same people who did all the hard work and sacrificed day and night for Mr Dumelo to build his political career as a parliamentary candidate, but ungratefully he chose to take the glory alone without acknowledging the great efforts put up by the grassroots as if he did everything alone by himself to attain the so-called gap difference of 1,900 votes,” she stated.
Another concern raised by the aggrieved women’s leader is that Dumelo allegedly lacks leadership skills and cannot unite people, considering the many challenges confronting the constituency.
