Blows in NPP over 'Shaaba'

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has issued a statement disowning the Member of Parliament for Nkawkaw, Seth Adjei Baa, popularly called Shaaba, triggering some blows in the party. The party says Shaaba may be considered as a member of the NPP if only he vacates his parliamentary seat and a by-election held, because he entered Parliament as an independent candidate. The development comes day after the Constitutuency Chairman, Nana Yaw Boateng and Baah Achamfour, the Youth Organiser, were reportedly beaten by party supporters at a constituency executive meeting last Sunday. The Chairman says he has reported the alleged assault on him to the Police and has been issued with a medical form to go for treatment. The statement to disown Shaaba was issued last Tuesday by the Nkawkaw Constituency Executive Committee of the NPP and signed by the First Vice Chairman, Boateng-Simpeh. It stated that �the constituency wishes to inform party members that Hon. Seth Adjei Baah is NOT, and I repeat NOT a member of the NPP. �The National Executive of the Party had never readmitted nor written a letter to anybody purporting to admit the said Seth Adjei Baah to the party. �Party members and sympathizers must disregard had treat with utmost contempt, the lies being peddled that Mr Seth Adjei Baah has been readmitted into the NPP,� the statement added. Mr Adjei Baah, a multimillionaire businessman and philanthropist, expressed interest to contest the Nkawkaw Constituency seat on the ticket of the NPP last year but was denied access. He subsequently left the party and contested the seat as an independent candidate and snatched it from the then incumbent NPP, MP, Kwabena Okerchiri Adusa. He has since associated with the NPP and was said to have campaigned for the then NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo. However, Shaaba said the party should channel its energies towards revamping it rather than him. He told newsmen yesterday, Wednesday, September 24, 2009 that he would continue to associate himself with the minority in Parliament. Last Tuesday�s statement to disown the MP for the party follows recent disagreements among some constituency leaders over who has the right to conduct elections of polling station executives. The statement claimed that though the Constituency Executive Committee and the Eastern Regional leadership of the party had officially inaugurated an Elections Committee and tasked it to supervise the said polling station elections; some individuals in the constituency are presenting themselves as those mandated to supervise the said polls. The statement named George Osei Ameyaw of Bonsu Farms, Eric Kwakye Darfour of �Ecowas Point� and Adwoa Pokua as the legitimate members of the said Elections Committee and stated that they had been mandated to �supervise the compilation, validation and receipt of the register, distribution of nomination forms as well as the conduct of elections of Polling Station Executives.� It warned that �besides the said Election Committee or their accredited representatives, no person or group of persons can make pronouncement or conduct any act in relation to the reforms of the party in the constituency.� Meanwhile, the party has announced the postponement of polling station executive elections across the country, owing to the impending by-election in Chereponi. According to a statement signed by Nana Ohene Ntow, General Secretary of the party, new dates for the elections are scheduled for Friday, October 2 to Sunday, October 4, 2009. �All regional and constituency secretariats as well as members of Parliament are to take noted of the new dates for the polling station executive elections and comply accordingly,� the statement said.