Ejisu NPP Primary: Reconsider your decision to contest if you have conscience – Kwesi Nyantakyi told
Anti-corruption campaigner, Vitus Azeem is urging the former Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Kwesi Nyantakyi, to rescind his decision to contest the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primary in the Ejisu constituency.
On April 3, former Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Kwesi Nyantakyi, and eight others picked forms to contest the NPP parliamentary primary for the Ejisu constituency.
The Ejisu seat has become vacant following the death of sitting MP and Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah on March 7, 2024.
The NPP has, therefore, set April 13, to elect a parliamentary candidate ahead of a by-election to be conducted by the Electoral Commission (EC).
Mr. Azeem while acknowledging that current laws in the country do not prohibit Nyantakyi’s candidacy, he asserted that it would be morally questionable for him to pursue the position.
According to the anti-corruption campaigner, his call follows the dent of corruption in Mr. Nyantakyi after being implicated in the Number 12 expose’ by investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
“No matter, whether he has been prosecuted or not it is a dent in him and it cannot easily be wiped away. It may not be possible to legally bar him from contesting but as somebody interested in Parliament, he should not even consider contesting for an election.
“It is not even the fact that you come out to admit that you paid money but the mere fact that at the very beginning, he was the key player in the Anas investigations and even though he has not been investigated and prosecuted, he too has not been able to exonerate himself and has now implicated himself by admitting that he paid money to Anas to stop him from airing the expose because it contained information that will further implicate him.
“If he has a conscience, he should not stand,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM.
It could be recalled that in June 2018, Anas released a video investigation that captured Mr. Nyantakyi, along with several other football administrators and officials, compromising the integrity of the game on a monumental scale.
Nyantakyi resigned from all his roles at the GFA, CAF, and FIFA and was eventually handed a lifetime ban from football, which was later reduced to 15 years.