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The incumbent Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle Constituency in the Greater Accra Region is seething with anger over claims of his ingratitude to former President John Rawlings.

Nii Armah Ashittey told Joy News he owes the Rawlings’ particularly, ex-president John Rawlings no favours and did not enter into politics a destitute.

“Today somebody can come and tell me I should show gratitude to Jerry Rawlings. For what? Why should I? I served Ghana, I didn’t serve Jerry Rawlings.

“In any case when I was coming into politics, I was not looking for jobs. I was doing well in my job. I never stayed in this country for two months without going abroad. What are they talking about? They should go and ask Jerry Rawlings whether I owe him any favour. I do not owe him any favour,” he said at a press conference held Monday.

It was the first press conference organised by the embattled MP after he proceeded to court to challenge the Parliamentary primaries he lost to the daughter of the ex-president- Dr Zanetor Rawlings.

He also accused the party leadership at the national level of manipulating events to have Dr Zanetor Rawlings win the primaries at all cost.

“The national executives were behind it. As for me I am a principled person. People think that there are people who can push others, I don’t need to tell you. The truth is only one and all said and done it will come out one day,” he said.

The MP also revealed that he had received death threats but is not deterred the least.

“I have received. People call me, others send me a text message to me and all that. There was a time people were following me. I don’t give a damn about that. I won’t lie to you. I am too big to lie. If you kill me, Ghana will live. I am not a coward type.

“When you dig a hole and you push weeds on it if you are not careful you are the same person who will fall into it,” he stated.

The MP, called on his supporters to exercise restraint and remain resolute as he seeks for redress in court.
He urged them not to panic and but be bold saying: “The truth is only one. At the end of the day, we shall get to the bottom of this case.”

He told scores of supporters at Osu on the legal battle with the elected Parliamentary Candidate for the Constituency, Dr. Zanator Rawlings.

Dr. Rawlings had 2,739 representing 58.84 percent of the valid votes cast in the NDC Parliamentary primaries in November last year to defeat Nii Armah Ashietey, who pulled 1,348 votes representing 37.51 percent and Nii John Coleman had 151 votes representing 3.24 percent.

Nii Armah Ashietey, later filed a suit against Dr. Rawlings at an Accra High Court, praying the court to restrain her from holding herself out as Parliamentary candidate-elect for the NDC.

Dr. Rawlings, last Wednesday filed a fresh suit at the Supreme Court “an order of prohibition directed to the His Lordship Kwaku T. Ackah Boafo J of the High Court…restraining him from proceeding to hear the dispute between the applicant and the interested parties pending a decision in the instant application.”

The Supreme Court would on April 26, hear the case.

The incumbent MP, described Dr Rawlings bid to seek interpretation at the Supreme Court as means of delaying the court process.

According to him, Dr. Rawlings after suffering some defeats at the High Court had now gone to the Supreme Court to seek refuge.

He noted that Dr. Rawlings’ decision to go to the Supreme Court to afford her register as a voter during the upcoming Limited Registration Exercise to be conducted from April 28 to May 8.

He recounted that he had worked hard to bring the constituency to a level that attracted people, adding that people had taken advantage of that to impose a candidate on the constituency.

Following the filing of the application before the Supreme Court, the High Court had stayed proceeding awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court.

According to Dr. Rawlings, the learned judge erred in law when he wrongly assumed jurisdiction to interpret Article 94(1) (a) of the Constitution holding that once the Applicant had put herself out as a contestant in the parliamentary primaries of the NDC, she was caught by Article 94(1) (a) which required that she was registered voter at the time of her participation in the primaries.

Dr. Rawlings has been dragged to court by the incumbent NDC MP for Klottey Korle, Nii Armah Ashietey over claims that she is not a Ghanaian registered voter.

The Incumbent MP has therefore prayed the court to declare the election of Dr. Rawlings election as null and void and urged the court to order the NDC to re-run the primary in the area.

But a Deputy General Secretary Koku Anyidoho would not discuss the merit of the parliamentary primaries except to say the allegations by Ashittey were unfounded.

He said the party went through due process in conducting the primaries and wondered why Ashittey will accuse them.

“We had no hand in any primaries,” he said, adding during the vetting of Dr Zanetor Rawlings the case about whether the eventual winner was a registered voter never came up.

“It was not a petition that was brought by anybody; It was not a petition that was brought by the constituency executives; it was not a petition that was brought by any of the contestants and so we through the voting process. As it is, there are legal processes that allow the young lady subsequently to get her name on the register,” he stated.

Koku Anyidoho, said the accusations being leveled against the national executives by Nii Ashittey, were without basis. He would rather the MP waits for the court’s verdict.

Nii Armah Ashittey, is asking the court to declare as null and void the parliamentary primary that elected Dr Zanetor Rawlings as NDC parliamentary candidate.

He cited amongst other things, that Dr Rawlings is not a registered voter, a breach of the party’s own guidelines for the parliamentary primaries.