Independent MP won’t benefit you – President tells Fomena chiefs

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appealed to the chiefs and people of Fomena to impress upon the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Fomena, Mr Andrews Amoako Asiamah, to rescind his decision to contest as an independent candidate.

He said it was unfortunate that in spite of several appeals to the MP to change his decision, he was still bent on going solo.

Addressing the chiefs and people at a durbar as part of his Ashanti Regional tour, President Akufo-Addo said he had personally sat down with Mr Asiamah to throw his support behind the NPP but all had fallen on deaf ears.

Development challenges

The President said Mr  Asiamah’s decision to contest the seat as an independent candidate would not help to bring significant development to the area as an independent candidate.

He told the chiefs that with an independent candidate as their MP, the constituents would not have anyone to negotiate with the government on their behalf.

President Akufo-Addo told the people of Fomena that they would lag behind in development if Mr Asiamah did not rescind his decision to contest the upcoming polls as an independent candidate.

He said Mr Asiamah’s decision to go solo in the parliamentary election was not in the best interest of the ruling NPP and his own political career.

Context

Mr Asiamah, a legal practitioner, announced his decision to run in the December polls as an independent candidate after he failed to get the nod in representing the NPP as the parliamentary candidate in the party’s recent primary.

The party, in a statement issued in Accra on October 13, 2020 and signed by its General Secretary, Mr John Boadu, indicated that all members of the NPP who had filed their nominations to contest as independent parliamentary candidates had forfeited their membership of the party.

It said the party had also taken cognisance of Mr Asiamah’s decision to file to contest as an independent parliamentary candidate.

It said by so doing, he (Asiamah) had presumably vacated his seat in Parliament pursuant to Article 97(1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic.

The statement said the party had taken the necessary steps to inform the Speaker of Parliament of the above circumstances for appropriate action to be taken.

Constituents

Opinions are, however, divided among party faithful as some of them had decided to show solidarity by voting for the independent candidate.

They blame the party executive members for deliberately masterminding the MP’s defeat.

Development

He asked Ghanaians to rally solidly behind the NPP in the forthcoming election for more development projects.

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