The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Ohene-Ntow, has rubbished a fiat issued by the party’s Nkawkaw constituency in the Eastern Region to disown the independent Member of Parliament for the area, Mr Seth Adjei Baah, popularly known as Shaaba.

The constituency is asking Mr Adjei Baah to vacate his parliamentary seat and a bye-election held before he would be considered a member of the party. The constituency executives took the issue further to prevent all supporters of the MP from being registered by the party resulting in a scuffle with some party sympathizers.

Meanwhile Mr Adjei Baah has told Myjoyonline.com that even though he is aware of what is happening in the constituency, he is yet to be served with any letter to that effect.

Nevertheless, Nana Ohene-Ntow told host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah Thursday that the constituency “has no authority to write to anybody to resign or reapply” to be a member of the party.

The party itself, he noted, has also not taken any decision or whatsoever, rather, the decision to resign or reapply lies with the individual.

He said all constituency chairmen have been asked to respect the concession granted to members who want to come back and register them under the waiver.

Even though the party’s constitution stipulates that any member who goes independent forfeits his membership, he said the waiver was for a “strategic” reason to achieve certain objectives.

Seth Adjei Baah unmoved

Mr Seth Adjei Baah is looking forward to contest again in 2012

Mr Seth Adjei Baah, in an interview with Myjoyonline.com, recalled that somewhere last year, the constituency sacked him from the party when he decided to contest the parliamentary seat independently.

Even though he is aware of the concession given them, Mr Adjei Baah is yet to make any move because he says he does not want “to be distracted from developing the area and keeping my campaign promises…I want to concentrate on my parliamentary job,” he stressed.

Apparently he was surprised at the behavior of the constituency executives, affirming “I have been working with the party at caucus meetings…what they are doing is wrong.”

The MP is on record to have campaigned for the NPP presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 election and the run-off.

Some executives who supported his candidature then were walked out of a recent meeting organized by the party, he said.

He asked his supporters to “remain calm, join the party they love and work for the party. The truth would come out and would be registered, and should not kill the spirit to move forward”.

He suspects the executives are employing these tactics just to forestall his chances of contesting his seat again because his presence in the party would be a stumbling block for their favourite.

Story by Isaac Essel

Source: myjoyonline