Kumasi, July 19, 2019 – I have taken note of a press statement by the Asawase constituency Chairman and Secretary indicating reasons why I could not pick my nominations forms at the Constituency level but instead at the regional level.
Their statement indicated that my agents were refused nomination forms on Wednesday, 10th July because the Constituency Executive Committee has suspended me.
I want to state that I have never received any suspension letter(s) from the Constituency Executive Committee. I learned of the content of the said suspension letter on social media after my agents made attempts to pick nomination forms from the constituency office. It is also not true that I have declined to honor an invitation by the constituency disciplinary committee; no request has been sent to me in the past from this office.
I have also heard my constituency chairman make claims on various platforms that indeed, the Ashanti regional secretary, has indicated that I, Mubarick Masawudu, had sent him a copy of the said suspension letter via WhatsApp. This statement is a total fabrication. I believe if this indeed took place, there will be evidence to this effect on the regional secretary’s phone.
Inasmuch as my heart is saddened about the way and manner some party officials have conducted themselves on this matter, I am not surprised. These kinds of attitude started from when the party within the constituency embarked on a new registration exercise to manually register new members at the branch level. The Electoral Commission (EC) register supplied by the constituency executives that served as a reference document for completing the new registration booklet came without my name. My details, located on Page 49 of the EC register for the branch, was torn out of the EC register to ostensibly block me from registering though this attempt proved futile.
Subsequently, the party embarked on a process to elect new branch executives to represent the various branches within the Asawase Constituency. I have been the branch communication officer for the Akurem JHS branch since 17th April 2013. In April 2018, there were branch elections to replace the old executives after their 4-year tenure ended. I stood for election as a communication officer for my branch but the elections in my branch, one year on has not been conducted. All attempts to get the constituency executives, regional executives, and national executives to address the branch election issue have proved futile. Members of my branch sent a petition on the 30th May 2018 to the party’s head office drawing their attention to the issues at the branch, but no response was received. This was after numerous meetings were held with the regional office to get them to conduct elections at the branch had proved futile. Again, on 12th June 2018, another letter was sent to the regional office pleading with them to come and conduct elections at my branch, but no response was received, nor any action taken.
On 17th December 2018, a letter was again sent to the constituency executives with a humble plea to get them to conduct the elections in my branch but to no avail.
The constituency chairman has indicated, as part, his reasons for not releasing the nomination forms to me at the constituency office on many media platforms that I have dragged the party to court. I would like to state that this claim is false. I do not have any pending legal suit against the party. Rather, He Alhaji Musah Abubakar is the one who has been sued by some members of the constituency for accusing them of taking monies from the regional chairman of the NPP, Chairman Wontumi to cause disaffection within the party in the constituency. An allegation I have also suffered from the chairman.
There have been numerous attempts to talk me out of contesting as parliamentary candidate for the Asawase constituency by agents of the incumbent MP, Hon. Muntaka Mubarak but proved futile. To this end, I am not surprised by the machinations taking place against my candidature.
I have petitioned the National Executives of the party on the injustice meted out to me thus far in this exercise. I urge my followers to remain calm and law-abiding as I exhaust all available means at my disposal for redress.
Thank You. God bless our beloved party, the NDC.
ISSUED BY:
MUBARICK MASAWUDU, ASAWASE PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE HOPEFUL.
