Chief Executive Officer of the State Transport Corporation (STC), Nana Akomea, has charged the leadership of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to show their teeth to any person who flouts the rules and regulations of the party, with emphasis on the internal contest activities within the party.
A statement from the party leadership regarding its major conference on Saturday, December 18 in Kumasi read; “Prior to and during the conference from December 18 to 20, 2021, no billboards and or signboards, banners or any kind of outdoor signage with the images and or names of individual members, with or without the consent of the individual, shall be acceptable. This applies to the area within the Greater Kumasi Metropolis. All such displays, if put up already, should be removed.”
“Any person, with or without his or her consent, whose image is flaunted on any advocacy material and who does not take active steps to desist from any public display of aspiration for a position within the precincts of Greater Kumasi runs a higher risk of disqualification in the event nominations are declared open,” the party has warned.
Despite the NPP executives' warning to the party's members and supporters not to erect billboards or engage in any internal campaigns, billboards of some potential Presidential candidates have however been reportedly erected in Kumasi.
Broaching this issue during a panel discussion on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Nana Akomea asked the party to show strength in dealing with such matters.
He bemoaned the internal contests going on within the NPP stressing, "let's minimize it. The only way you can minimize it is by not starting three years before the time".
Regarding the billboards mounted in Kumasi, he charged the party to deface them with paint and sanction those behind it.
"Wait for the party to make arrangements and open room for you to do your campaigns and even the campaign, when it's time, the party has to make sure that we have rules or what you can say and what you cannot say. The party should be strong on this and the party should show its strength starting from Kumasi. Those who have done the billboards and deny knowledge of it, the party should go and paint them. The person who is also caught doing it must also be sanctioned. The party should show strength at this time. We need it," he exclaimed.
Cover The Billboards
He also called on the party executives to cover all billboards and trace the records of those who mounted them at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly saying, "before you mount a billboard in Kumasi, you need permission. You can't just go and put up a billboard in Kumasi. You have to go to KMA for a permit. So, definitely the person who authorized the mounting of the billboard, the records should be at KMA. Unless they used their own power to erect it and that will be strange that any person can dig the ground and put a billboard there without first seeking permission from KMA".
"The party should be able to trace. When they go to KMA, the record of the people who authorized such billboards should be at KMA and the party should be able to trace. When they don't find the record at KMA, it means you have breached the laws," he added.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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