NEC denied me opportunity to defend myself — Agyepong
The suspended General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kwabena Agyepong, has said he was denied the opportunity to defend himself in the matters that led to his suspension.
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According to him, although he supplied all the evidence required from him in the allegations filed against him, the committee that probed him asked him to excuse himself from their meetings until a decision was taken on him.
“I want to reiterate that for the avoidance of doubt, I placed all the foregoing facts before the Disciplinary Committee during my encounter with them. I was asked to recuse myself during the subsequent NEC meeting and therefore was denied the opportunity to participate in the deliberations”, Mr Agyepong said.
Statement
“I would like to state that the only purpose for putting out this statement is to correct the inaccuracies contained in the NPP communiqué of December 10, 2015 and for no other purpose,” he wrote in a statement.
On December 10, 2015, the director of communications of the party issued a communique on the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) confirming the NEC’s endorsement of the Disciplinary Committee’s recommendation to suspend him indefinitely from office as General Secretary.
Mr Agyepong refuted all charges made against him by his party, saying “After a detailed study and deep reflection on the communiqué, I wish to take this opportunity to repudiate and totally reject all of the reasons ascribed by the NPP for my suspension, especially any intended or unintended attempts to impugn my reputation and tarnish my good name.”
Disparaging statements
On the charge of the various public statements he made that cast the party in a bad light, the embattled general secretary said since September 2, 2015, when the presidential candidate called for a halt to all discussions of internal party issues in the media, he had not said anything that could be considered as putting the party in a bad light.
He added that he was ready to have that assertion proved by concrete and verifiable evidence.
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Unilateral actions
Mr Agyepong said contrary to the charge that he engaged in unilateral actions and activities without consulting or authorisation by the NEC, such as writing to the Electoral Commission (EC) designating only himself and suspended Chairman Afoko as the only authorised signatories of the party, he had never written any such letters and that could be verified at the EC.
He said earlier in the year, the deputy general secretary and some regional chairmen wrote to the EC, and the EC’s response was that as per the laid-down procedures of the commission, and in accordance with the Political Parties Act 2000, communication to the commission was done mainly through parties’ general secretaries.
He said the EC followed up its response with an instruction to all political parties reminding them that all correspondence between itself and the parties should be done through the general secretaries/chairmen, and further instructed that IPAC would, from then on, only admit three representatives from each political party, namely the national chairman, general secretary and one other officer.
Parliamentary waivers
Mr Agyepong said the granting of waivers to parliamentary aspirants who had shown commitment to the party by general secretaries of the NPP was a precedent established by previous occupants of the position. For example, in 2011, the then general secretary granted waivers to many, including Anthony Karbo and Dr Ayew Afriyie, without recourse to NEC or the NPP’s Steering Committee.
“In my case, most of the waivers went to the Volta Region, at the request of the Regional Chairman, Mr Peter Amewu, in constituencies where we have traditionally struggled to field candidates.
“In the case of Peter Mensah, the gentleman who suffered an acid attack in the course of duty as constituency organiser, I justifiably granted him a waiver after receiving the request from him and some executives members of the Techiman North Constituency. Development fees were waived for the following: The former National Organiser, Bamba; former MP, Effah Dartey, former MP, Mrs Cecilia Amoah; as well as Dr Ayew Afriyie, who has supported the party through AFAG. The Steering Committee was accordingly informed,” he said.
Mr Agyepong said there was no record of protest or, indeed, any disciplinary action against any of his predecessors for the actions or their reasons for granting waivers which also followed precedents.