REMOVE UPPER MANYA NPP EXECUTIVE ...Say some polling station chairmen (Page 17)

Story: A. Kofoya-Tetteh, Koforidua

SOME of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) polling station chairmen in the Upper Manya Constituency in the Eastern Region have called for the removal of the entire executive of the party in the constituency.
They accused the executive, under the chairmanship of Mr Joe Sam, of corruption, incompetence, lack of transparency, selfishness and gross disrespect for the entire membership of the party in the constituency.
This was contained in a letter addressed to the Eastern Regional Chairman of the NPP and copied to other stakeholders such as the National Chairman of the party, the Eastern Regional Representative on the Council of State, the Eastern Regional Minister, the District Chief Executive of Manya Krobo, the Presiding Member of the Manya Krobo Assembly and the party's parliamentary candidate for the Upper Manya Constituency.
According to the letter, they stated that if the executive members, especially Mr Joe, Sam were not removed from office, there was no way the party could win the constituency seat in the up-coming December elections.
They accused Mr Sam of usurping the role of the other executive members and running a one-man show by keeping the party's assets and logistics such as a truck, motor cycles and bicycles in his house instead of the party's office.
The polling station chairmen further alleged that Mr Sam manipulated the selection of delegates to the December NPP congress by replacing some of the delegates with people of his choice, adding that such an action had not gone down well with some members of the party in the constituency.
They said the situation was so bad to the extent that only members of the executive could contribute to discussion of issues affecting the party in the constituency, which, according to them, had undermined the democratic tenets of the party.
The polling station chairmen, who stated that the continued stay in office of the executive could result in the loss of the constituency seat for the fourth time running, therefore called for their immediate replacement to enable the party to win the seat, which had, for a long time, been occupied by the National Democratic Congress(NDC).
Mr Sam, for his part, denied all the allegations levelled against him and explained that the group calling for his removal was led by Messrs Forster Nartey, Moses Tetteh and George Gli.
According to him, Nartey and Tetteh contested for the position of constituency chairman, while Gli contested for the position of vice- chairman and they all lost the elections and had therefore become aggrieved.