General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Koduah has debunked claims that the current leadership of the NPP has hijacked the party.
Alan Kyerematen, who dropped out of the race for the NPP presidential nomination early this month, consequently announced at a public forum on Monday, September 25 that he has resigned from the party to contest the national election as an independent candidate.
According to the former trade minister, “The party has been hijacked by a selected group of party leaders and elders, government appointees, ‘behind-the-curtain power brokers’ and some unscrupulous party apparatchiks.”
Responding to these claims in a press briefing on Tuesday, September 26, Mr Kodua said, “The leadership of the Party equally disagrees with assertions made by Mr Kyerematen in page eight (8) of his resignation address that ‘‘the Party has been hijacked by a selected group of Party leaders and elders, and government appointees behind the curtain power brokers”
“Guided by facts and data, the leadership of the Party disagrees entirely with this assertion. Historically, the selection of flagbearers for political parties in Ghana had been the preserve of a privileged few until the New Patriotic Party took the bold decision to decentralize the process by expanding its electoral college to enfranchise some One Hundred and Six Thousand, Five-Hundred and Ninety (106,590) delegates in 2010,” he added.
Meanwhile, the NPP says it respects the decision of Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen to resign from the party.
General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Koduah while acknowledging that the party accepts Mr Kyerematen’s decision, noted their disappointment in the lack of prior notification to the party’s leadership before the public announcement.