The Secretary at the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Cynthia Agyei, has been relieved of her post for issuing forms to Muntaka Mubarak’s opponent in the upcoming parliamentary primaries, without the knowledge of her superior, Mr Kwame Zu.
Kwame Zu, who is the Regional Secretary of the party, confirmed the dismissal to The Chronicle. He explained that the sale of forms does not fall under the remit of his Secretary, and that he does not know the circumstance under which his Secretary got the forms and issued them to representatives of Masawudu Mubarick, who has declared his intention to contest the Minority Chief Whip in Parliament.
Mr Zu had posted on his facebook wall that at the close of nomination, only Mr Muntaka Mubarak had picked forms to contest the Asawase primary.
The post angered the youth in the constituency, who accused the Regional Executive of the party of scheming to make Mr Muntaka an unopposed candidate.
Mr. Kwame Zu, however, denied in a telephone interview with The Chronicle that his office was working for Muntaka, describing the allegation as ‘ridiculous and baseless’.
According to the Ashanti Regional NDC Secretary, he only posted a statement that apart from Mr. Muntaka Mubarak no other person had submitted forms to him after close of nominations. He was emphatic his post was about aspirants and not about forms, as it has been misconstrued.
However, a section of irate NDC youth in the Asawase Constituency in the Ashanti Region have accused Kwame Zu and some executives of the NDC of deploying machiavellian tactics to see Mr. Muntaka Mubarak go as an unopposed candidate in the constituency.
They (aggrieved youth) argued that the people of Asawase do not like Muntaka, but some of the regional and constituency executives are working hard to prevent contestants from battling Muntaka during the primary.
Speaking to Fatiu Salihu, a representative who went and picked the form for Mr. Masawudu Mubarick, he said when he and his team got to the regional office of the party, Mr. Kwame Zu was not around.
They then called the Regional Chairman, Nana Akwasi, who instructed that they should be given the forms.
Fatiu Salihu alleged that there was grand scheme to get his candidate disqualified, but they would not sit down for that to happen.
Meanwhile, Mr. Osman Adbduhlah Nabili, Ashanti Regional Organiser of the NDC, has also told the media that he personally witnessed Fatiu and his colleagues picking forms on behalf of Masawudu, which was done at the office of Kwame Zu, after the Regional Chairman ordered the release of the form to them.
He noted that the incident was also witnessed by one Election Director known as Damba, who oversaw the sale of the forms.
When the Ashanti Regional Chairman of NDC, Nana Akwasi, was reached for his side of the story, he told this reporter that he was in court fighting for bail for a party member and would talk to this paper later.
Source: Ghanawish.com
