�I Will Go Independent If'....NPP Parliamentary Aspirant Threatens

A New Patriotic Party (NPP) aspirant for Tema West Constituency in the Greater Accra region, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has threatened to go independent if the leadership of the party disqualifies him ahead of the constituency parliamentary primaries scheduled to take place on June 13, 2015.

Speaking on OMAN FM’s morning and evening programmes ‘National Agenda’ and ‘Boiling Point’ respectively, Mr. Ahenkorah claimed he has heard of moves to disqualify him during vetting.

He told Fiifi Boafo, Host of the morning programme, ‘National Agenda’ that even though some rumours are going round about his possible disqualification; he has no evidence to confirm those reports.

“If the system uses anything against me and disqualifies me, I will have not option than to go independent. I hope it does not come to that because so far, there is nothing to show that I will be disqualified,” he stated.

Mr. Ahenkorah claimed he was prevailed upon by some anonymous NPP elders to  contest and reverse what he described as the dwindling fortunes of the party in Tema West Constituency.

“The NPP won narrowly by just 950 votes in 2012 and the elders believe that if nothing is done, the party risks losing the seat in 2016,” he said.

The Tema West Constituency seat is currently occupied by Irene NaaTorshie who has also risen to the leadership position in Parliament as First Deputy Minority Chief Whip.

Mr. Ahenkorah claimed NPP’s votes had been reducing in the constituency because of the candidate involved.

However, available figures indicated that NPP votes have been reducing rapidly in all the constituencies in Greater Accra.

This means that the main opposition party will need to drastically  change its political strategy to win more votes in the region and not about changing candidates who are probably not the cause of the dwindling fortunes of the party.

Mr. Ahenkorah also told Kwabena Kwakye, Host of OMAN FM’s popular evening programme ‘Boiling Point’ he will donate an office to the party in Sakumono should he be elected as NPP’s parliamentary candidate for Tema West.

It is not however clear if he will provide the office if he is rejected by party delegates at the primaries.

Mr. Ahenkorah said the former Majority Leader and ex-MP for Tema West, Abraham Osei Aidoo, was not treated well when he was kicked out as a leader of the party and promised to bring him on board if he is elected.

He however fell short of pronouncing if he wanted the current MP who is also a leader to be treated like Mr. Aidoo.

Mr. Ahenkorah came to political limelight recently when he was dragged to Human Rights Division of the High Court for filing his nomination to contest for Unit Committee elections in the Tema West Constituency.

Three applicants, Nana Yaw Ntim, Duane Augustine Holdbrook and Edward Osei Nyarko had prayed the court to order an injunction restraining Mr. Ahenkorah from “contesting in and voting at the Unit Committee election in the Tema West Constituency,” because he was not eligible to do same in the constituency.

Represented by Thaddeus Sory, the applicants averred Mr. Ahenkorah filed his nomination to contest the unit committee election after he ‘falsely’ and ‘illegally’ transferred his vote from Tema Central Constituency to Tema West Constituency.

However, the court refused to uphold the case of the applicants.