Nii Noi can’t be trusted again — Ishmael Ashitey

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Ishmael Ashitey, has stated that Nii Noi Nortey may find it difficult to regain the trust of the party in the event that his apology and plea for reconciliation is accepted.

According to Mr  Ashitey, Nii Nortey may struggle to reach the height he had attained before his fallout with the party.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, he stressed that: “When you do such a thing, you lose trust; and now for the party to trust you to give you a sensitive position, it is going to be very difficult… for people to agree that he will hold an executive position, I think that will be a very difficult thing to do.”

Nii Nortey, a former Klottey Korle Constituency Chairman, contested and lost the Klottey Korle seat as an independent candidate in the 2016 polls after losing at a contentious primary to Philip Addison.

After his loss in the primary, his supporters, incensed by the circumstances leading to the defeat, impressed on him to contest as an independent candidate, even though the national leadership pledged to calm tensions there and present a united front for the 2016 parliamentary election.

Nii Nortey, in his attempt to bury the hatchet, has revealed that NPP stalwarts, including former President John Kufuor, now President Nana Akufo-Addo and now Vice-President Mahamadu Bawumia, spoke to him personally to back down but he refused.

Nii Noi to re-apply

Now that Mr Nortey wants a return to the party after an apology through the media to President Akufo-Addo and others, Mr Ashitey said, “If really he wants to come back, he would have to write to the party and then we will forward it to the disciplinary committee which will look at it and then advise the steering committee to take a decision.”

“What that means is that you have sacked yourself from the party. You are no longer a member and for that matter, he would have to write and apply to become a member. He would have to go through a very long process,” he added.

Mr Ashitey, however, did not present Mr Nortey’s situation as hopeless, noting that, “It is serious; but it does not mean that there is nothing that can be done about it. Maybe something can be done”.