<<Print>>

The fierce intra-party wrangling and in-fighting at the national level in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has spilled down to the constituency levels, leading to the destruction of the Upper Manya Krobo office of the party in the Eastern region by a section of the youth, purported to be supporters of the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Stephen Amoanor Kwao, who was once the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare. The youth, numbering about 20, allegedly stormed the office last Thursday at about 3.30pm, broke some plastic chairs and destroyed two ceiling fans that were provided by one Jeff Kavianu, a former constituency organizer of the party, who is seriously nursing the ambition to contest the MP in the primary, which is yet to take place. Earlier, reports said the youth had completely vandalized the office and destroyed everything there, but DAILY GUIDE, during a visit to the town and the constituency office, realized that the new air conditioner, DSTV decoder, tables and majority of the plastic chairs provided by Mr. Kavianu were intact. The constituency organizer of the party, Ebenezer Kpabitey told DAILY GUIDE that the �attack� on the office by a section of the youth was allegedly instigated by Hon. Amoanor Kwao. He said the MP feels �pained� that a party member had taken it upon himself to renovate the new office of the party and furnish it. �Mr. Jeff, who was once our party organizer and initially selected as the parliamentary candidate in 2000 for the constituency before being changed for Mr. Amoanor Kwao to take his place realized that a constituency party office of the party in government was in a very bad state and therefore decided to renovate it with his own money before the constituency chairman gave him the go ahead.� Mr. Kpabitey said. According to the constituency organizer, the MP had completely neglected the party in the constituency. �This is a stronghold of the NDC and it looks as if it is rather the stronghold of the NPP because since the NDC came to power we have not seen anything happening in the constituency,� he said, adding that when MP was the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare he never did anything for the people in the area. �Ask the MP if he ever helped any member of the party or assisted any member of the party here to get employment when he became the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare and now that he is a Minister of State?� he questioned. He said they have seen that the MP has lost popularity after contesting on the ticket of the NDC on three occasions, stressing that his votes have reduced from 24,000 votes in 2000 to 16,000 in 2008. The MP, who is now a Minister of State at the Presidency, for his part, said he does not know anything about the action of the youth even though he claims his strength in the constituency is the youth. According to him, the constituency executives, most of whom had turned against him, intentionally destroyed the chairs and the fans to implicate him so that they can make him unpopular. The MP explained that he has been the MP for the area since 2001 and he is very much popular and in touch with the people but the constituency executive members had turned against him because Mr. Kavianu, who he claimed deserted the party after the 2000 elections, had paid huge sums of money to the constituency executive members so that they can �unseat� him. He said if the executive members have drawn the battle line, he is also ready for them, stressing that he cannot build the party while in opposition for some people to come from nowhere to enjoy where they had not sown. Mr Kavianu, who is at the centre of all these allegations, also told DAILY GUIDE that the MP is afraid of his own shadow adding that because he has allegedly neglected the party he is afraid of losing the parliamentary primaries. �I did this for the party as true member of the party because the party has been neglected and the MP feels when the President of the Republic of Ghana, Prof Atta Mills comes to region after his tour of the Western region, he would find out that the MP has not been supporting the party in the constituency,� he said, adding that that was why he allegedly instigated the youth to destroy things in the party office. He noted that it was his intention to hand over the renovated constituency office, which according to him, cost GH� 10,000 to the constituency officers on May 16 but the MP, together with the constituency youth organizer, decided to organize the youth to destroy things at the office in order to disorganize the handing over ceremony.