The general secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Justin Frimpong Kodua has refuted claims that the new leadership has hijacked the governing party.
The former minister of trade and industry Alan Kyerematen on Monday accused the national executives of bias.
Kyerematen, who dropped out of the race for the NPP presidential nomination early this month, consequently announced at a public forum that he has resigned from the party to contest the national election as an independent candidate.
“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,” he said.
Accusation
“It was my fervent wish to use the vehicle of the party to bring my God-given talents, experience and knowledge, acquired both locally and internationally over a period of 46 years, to serve our dear nation, Ghana, at the highest level of executive authority,” he said.
“It is abundantly clear to me that my services and contributions to the party are not appreciated, and that my continuous stay in the party will create further tension and division, which is an exact replay of circumstances that led to my decision to resign from the party in 2008.”
Baseless allegation
Responding to the claims on Tuesday (26 September), Kodua said the allegations are baseless.
“The leadership of the party equally disagrees with the assertion made by Kyerematen… that the party has been hijacked by a selected group of party leaders, elders and government appointees behind-the-curtain of power brokers.
“Guided by the 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 select few until NPP took the bold decision to decentralise the process by expanding its electoral college to enfranchise some 106,590 delegates in 2010,” Kodua said.
“Currently, about 200,000 delegates will be voting to select the party’s next flagbearer, relative to the estimated 1,998 who did same in 1992. Clearly, the quantum leap to 200,000 delegates in 2023 underscores the decentralisation of power to all party stakeholders and defeats the assertion that the party has been hijacked by a privileged few,” Kodua said.
