The unshaken former Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwadaso Constituency in the Ashanti Region, has dared elements within the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to suspend her also recognizing and respecting the ousted Paul Akofo as the elected National Chairman.
Madam Hilda Addo, vowed to continue this until the court decides that Mr. Afoko’s suspension masterminded by the Presidential candidate of the party, Nana Addo, was legally right.
‘’I will continue to state my mind and Afoko, also has the right to say he is the right and elected Chairman of the NPP’’, she expressed.
They cannot gag Mr. Afoko from speaking his mind, particularly about what happened to him; his First Vice Chairman, Mr. Sammy Crabbe and General Secretary, Mr. Kwabena Agyepong, last year, the former MP stressed.
Madam Hilda Addo, said the choice of Freddie Blay, onetime Convention People’s Party (CPP) lawmaker for Ellembele in the Western Region as the Acting NPP National Chairman, frowns on Article 17 of the Constitution that governs the party.
According to her, Article 17 stipulates that, “all persons shall be equal before the law; a person shall not be discriminated against on any grounds”.
She questioned whether it was because Mr. Afoko belonged to the Kufour camp?
The former legislator, insisted she still respects Mr. Afoko as the chairman of the party, but he could not go to his office for fear of being attacked like what happened to Kwabena Agyapong, when he entered the headquarters to resume his duties after some brouhaha over who has the authority to convene National Executive Committee (NEC) Meetings.
Madam Addo; who was a member of the Economic Committee of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament between 2004 and 2008, but lost the seat to Dr. Affriyie Akoto, the current MP, made the comment on an Accra-based Rainbow Radio, in reaction to the decision by the party to gag the suspended elected National chairman from speaking to the media.
“Me if you (the press) call me, I will speak my mind to help correct the wrongs in the party, and if I say the truth and I will be suspended, so be it”.
She maintained that Article 21 of the NPP Constitution gives the suspended Chairman, the authority to express himself like any other person in the party, adding Mr. Afoko, has the right to explain to his supporters the reason, he had dragged the party to court.
Afoko went to court to scrutinize the laws of the party, adding that this was a clear indication that, Mr. Afoko, does not understand the suspension meted out to him, she said.
“The way the NPP has been managed by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his cohorts, has send shivers down the spine of some of the supporters, who belong to Kufour’s camp, and they are now afraid to show their colours, to avoid sentiments of the grassroot whipped up against them.
“These people, have shied away from speaking about what is happening in the party”, she explained further. According to her, what Freddie Blay, did by undermining the duly of the elected National Chairman, was a bad omen for the party going into the November 7, Parliamentary and Presidential elections.
Instead of Nana Akufo-Addo to sit down and do self- introspection to understand why he had not been winning, they are rather out there dealing with people they perceived to belong to Ex-President Kufuor’s camp, she said.
She advised the NPP to be truthful in all its dealings to be able to win the November 7, polls, but cautioned Mr. Afoko against prejudicing the case pending before the court, in his attempt to explain the issue to his teeming supporters.
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