The infighting in the Tema West constituency of the New Patriotic Party which is threatening the party’s control over the seat ahead of this year’s election is far from over as latest information reaching The aL-hAJJ indicates that the party is on the verge of suspending its member of parliament for the area, Irene Naa Torshie Addo.
The MP who doubles as Minority Chip whip in parliament has been accused by executives of the Greater Accra regional branch of the biggest opposition party for being behind people using the law court to frustrate the NPP’s newly elected parliament candidate, Carlos Ahenkorah.
Largely regarded as one of Nana Akufo-Addo’s “darling” MP, Madam Naa Torshie was defeated at the primaries by Mr Ahenkorah after several petitions to the party and legal actions to block the latter from contesting the NPP primaries failed.
Even after his victory over the incumbent MP, Mr Ahenkorah has seen no peace as he has been subjected to varying court cases from NPP supporters allegedly being sponsored by Madam Naa Torshie to disqualify him from leading the party into the 2016 election in the Tema West constituency.
This is said to have angered executives of the party in the region who are said to be mulling over possible punitive actions against the outgoing legislator.
Sources in the party told this paper that the regional executives are not oblivious of happenings in the Tema West constituency and “very soon we are going to act. We cannot allow one person to hold all of us to ransom. We nearly lost that seat in the 2012 elections so we are not going to sit down to allow the parochial interest of one person to affect our chances.”
Asked who could be behind the troubles in the constituency, a regional executive of the party who does not want his name mentioned told The aL-hAJJ that “all these things are happening because Naa Torshie lost. Those who went to court seeking annulment of the election whose interest were they serving. Did they contest any election? They went to court because Naa Torshie lost and they are fighting to get her to contest the election on the ticket of the party.”
He added that “their actions so far shows that they are been backed by Naa Torshie which is very bad. We are looking for power so we must all put party’s interest above our individual interest. In all of these things happenings, Naa Torshie have not called her supporters to order, they are still working against our elected candidate so very soon we will swoop on all of them including Naa Torshie.”
Short of giving details of what the party intends doing to the MP, the sourced said “if we have to suspend her in order to retain the seat, we will gladly do so. We have had enough of this backstabbing in that constituency.”
Last week, the Today Newspaper quoted sources in NPP to have threatened to dismiss party members who drag the party to court without first exhausting the party’s internal structures.
“We believe that the time has come for the NPP to take stringent measures and decisions to dismiss people from this party, because we cannot continue going this way. You have not exhausted the grievance channel of the NPP and you just go and file this kind of suit just to drag people up and down,” the source was quoted to have said.
This threat follows a fresh suit filed at the Court of Appeal in Accra by two members of the NPP, Nana Yaw Ntim and Mr. Christian Joseph, who are perceived to be surrogates of the defeated Naa Torshie against, Mr. Ahenkorah, challenging his eligibility to contest the 2016 General Elections on the ticket of the NPP.
The two litigants had earlier been thrown out by a General Jurisdiction Court for attempting to annul the parliamentary primaries that elected Mr Ahenkorah on grounds that prior to the election, the NPP directed that Ga-Adangme constituencies especially those around the coast, should be contested by only indigenous residents, claiming the elected candidate is not one of them.
Mr Ahenkorah himself has been reported in the media on countless occasions accusing Naa Torshie Addo of trying to find any means to reinstate herself after having lost the primaries.
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