The constituency organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Ahanta West, Kwesi Tawiah, has condemned the decision by some regional executives of the party to break into the office of the party’s regional headquarters last Monday in Takoradi.
The regional Secretary, Charles Bissue, had his office broken into on the orders of the regional chairman Dickson Attah-Nketiah and the lock to the office changeds.
It was unclear why the office was broken into but the chairman later in a letter to the secretary demanded for documentation of two party vehicles which were in the custody of Mr. Bissue.
One of the vehicles has been returned but without its documentation.
Commenting on Monday’s incident which is suspected to be the result of a seeming conflict among executives of the New Patriotic Party in the Western Region, Mr, Tawiah said the action was alien to the party.
“I joined the party in 1989… and I have been working for the party in the region since then and I have never heard that locks to any office in any constituency have been changed without the knowledge of the officer not to talk about an office at the regional level,” he said.
The constituency organiser said he was “sourly disappointed” at what happened at the regional office, indicating it will set a bad precedent.
“I’m afraid for the party because anything can happen to the office now that a precedent has been set,” he argued.
Mr. Tawiah said he was not surprised that the action was endorsed by the regional chairman.
“After the chairman was elected he appointed a personal secretary to do the very duties the secretary – Charles Bissue – was elected to do. But the party kicked against it and since then the relationship between him and the secretary has not been the best” he claimed.
When asked about the claim that the action was taken because the office is always locked Mr. Tawiah stated “there is nothing wrong with that because that office is sacred”.
“The office of the regional secretary is the most essential at the secretariat. This is the office where critical documents are kept. In fact this office is where we have all our strategies so the office is not one that should be treated any how” he added.
In his estimation, once the secretary is not around his office should be closed “because of the risk that someone may leak an essential document” which he noted could be disastrous for the party.
Mr. Tawiah suggested that the attack on the office of the regional secretary is an attempt to render him inefficient stressing “so now that you have changed the locks how will Charles Bissue be able to assess the office he has been elected to occupy and work”.
According to him, the role the regional secretary played in the run up to the party’s electoral victory in the region in 2016 is unmatched.
“You should have seen how the regional secretary worked, moving from one constituency to the other. I remember an episode where we had to sleep close to a cocoa farm on our way to Bodi because we had run out of fuel. I woke up around 2:00am and Charles was still awake wrapped in a blanket and was typing with a rechargeable lamp” he said.
“Some constituencies were struggling financially when we were preparing for the 2016 elections. The secretary who is a founding chairman of the Northampton and instrumental in the expansion formation of other chapters in the UK was able to mobilize Ghanaians abroad to come and adopt these constituencies.
“When the chairman was indisposed, when the first vice chairman passed on, it was Charles Bissue who took charge of the party until Francis Ndede – Siah took over” he added.
He added that now that the secretary is also a Presidential Staffer some elements in the party wants the region to lose this opportunity.
“We will not allow that to happen because we know what Charles Bissue has planned for the region”.
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