‘Reject independent candidates; I can’t work with them’ – Akufo-Addo

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President Nana Akufo-Addo has said independent parliamentary candidates, who break away from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) cannot help his government achieve its goals.

Mr. Akufo-Addo rather wants Ghanaians, especially constituents at Ahafo Ano North to vote for Sanid Suleman, the incumbent NPP MP.

Some aggrieved NPP parliamentary aspirants have resorted to contesting independently despite several attempts by the party hierarchy to rescind their decision. 

In the case of the Ahafo Ano North Constituency, Kwabena Osei-Bonsu, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), broke away from the party to contest the sitting MP.

He was unable to contest in the NPP parliamentary primaries despite his best efforts and thus declared his intention to go as an independent candidate.

But speaking at Tepa as part of his tour to the Ashanti Region, President Akufo-Addo called on residents in the area to reject such candidates.

“Anybody who is contesting as an independent candidate cannot be a die-hard member of the NPP. If you’re an NPP you can’t contest independently”, the President told the gathering in Twi, as he unveiled the sitting MP to the gathering.

“Especially when you refuse to honour my invitation over the issue then it means you don’t regard me [Akufo-Addo], and I can’t work with someone who doesn’t respect me”, Mr. Akufo-Addo said.

The President earlier made such remarks at the Ahafo Ano South West Constituency where the sitting MP is being contested by an independent candidate who broke away from the party under similar circumstances.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the NPP is racing against time to get some party members to rescind their decisions to contest as Independent Parliamentary Candidates in the 2020 election.

The candidates are contesting in constituencies known to be strongholds of the NPP like Asokwa and Bekwai.

In Bekwai for example, a lawyer, Akwasi Amofa-Agyemang, declared his intention to contest the 2020 Parliamentary elections as an independent candidate for Bekwai after he was disqualified from contesting allowing the incumbent, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, to run unopposed.

Speaking during the launch of the Ashanti Regional campaign ahead of the December polls, Patron of the regional campaign team, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor said the party is working to get the Independent candidates to rescind their decision.

“That is why I have been appointed to the patron of the organising committee. I am going to try and persuade them to come back into the fold and allow our elected candidates to go forward,” Mr. Kufuor said.

“We shall leave no stone unturned. We must go all out and the candidates should be all-inclusive,” he assured further.

The National Organizer for the NPP, Sammi Awuku, also said the party’s national reconciliation committee was still engaging the aggrieved candidates to reach a consensus.

“We continue to talk to them. Some have stepped down. We are also still talking to some and I am confident that at the NPP at the end of the day will make headway when we have these small disputes,” he indicated.

Source: Daily Mail GH