MP, Dr. Kwabena Donkor Has No Hand In Disqualification -Of Two Aspirants In NDC Vetting At Pru East

COMMUNICATIONS Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Pru East Constituency of the Bono East Region, Mr Williams Bumbom Baba has jumped into spirited defence of the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Dr. Kwabena Donkor for wrongly accusing him of orchestrating the disqualification of two aspirants during the vetting of the officers who would be contesting the NDC internal constituency election scheduled to take off on Saturday October 22, 2022.

The two who were reported to have been disqualified from the race are the Pru East
Constituency Secretary hopeful, Mr Benjamin Dagardu and the Constituency Organiser aspirant, Mr Emmanuel Kwaku Boam.

There are misunderstanding in Pru East Constituency compounded with the demostration by some disgruntled supporters of the NDC who had pointed accusing fingers at their MP that he has orchestrated the disqualification of two aspirants from contesting the executive positions in the upcoming NDC internal election.

They stated that their MP has stead the development of the constituency, the progress of the youths and other irresponsible attitude against the NDC as a party. 

But in a quick rebuttal, Mr Baba stated that the Pru East Constituency executives and various members of the NDC were not happy at the turn of events “because their MP can never do what he has been accused of doing.”

Speaking in an interview with this reporter, Mr Baba said, “We are not happy at all because we know our MP as honest and incorruptible; he has been so truthful to all the people in his constituency that it is painful that this is how some of the residents of the area to reward him. 

He stressed that "Please we want to use this medium to tell those who are wrongly accusing the MP for masterminding the disqualification of the two aspirants to leave our MP alone."

He stressed that Mr Emmanuel Kwaku Boam and Mr Benjamin Dagardu should rather blame themselves for causing their own woes, adding that the MP has no hands in their disqualification and his hands are clean.

According to him, the two personalities had not listened to the series of the earlier advises some of the constituency  leaders including himself had offered to them to the effect that they were not qualified to contest their respective positions so far as the NDC's constitution and regulations governing the conduct of the constituency executives election of the NDC are concerned.

Further, Mr Baba described the allegations leveled against the MP as completely baseless, unfounded and concocted or cooked story, ostensibly just to paint Dr. Donkor black.

According to him, there are guidelines and rules or regulations in the connection of conducting the NDC internal constituency executives election and that the two had  disrespected the guidelines and regulations, the situation which had informed the decision of the panel to disqualify the two personalities from contesting the election which has scheduled to be held on Saturday October 22, 2022.

He explained that the guildlines stipulate that "you must be a registered voter and belongs to party branch in your constituency before you are eligible to contest any election on the ticket of the NDC in this country," stressing that these guidelines and rules are very key and fundamental.

"So when the vetting committee that came to the Pru East Constituency was a representative from the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC from the national who is a lawyer by profession, two Bono East Regional executives who represented the panel and two Pru East constituency executive committee members.

"So even as l am speaking to this journalist today Dr Kwabena Donkor doesn't even known
this your man called Benjamin Dagardu. Myself as the Communications Officer of the NDC in Pru East Constituency, l only got to know Mr Benjamin Dagardu on the day of the branch executives election when he [Benjamin Dagardu was going rounds canvassing for the people to come to contest at the branch levels because he has intention to contest for the secretary position of the NDC in the area," Mr Baba explained.

Mr Baba pointed out that l never knew Mr Benjamin Dagardu in the party or seen him when there are activities or programmes of the NDC in the constituency before."

During the vetting of the candidates for the  Constituency executive position, Mr Baba stated that when Benjamin Dagardu appeared before the panel of the vetting committee, he was asked to give out his voter identification card and the ID card.

"But if you know and study voter ID card it carefully you realized that there was pattern  of the numbers on the voter ID card from the constituency to region. So the constituency code or the constituency pattern of the numbers were different from him. 

Following this development, when the members of the panel of the vetting committee questioned Benjamin Dagardu that where has he be voting, he responded that he  is being voting in Kumasi," Mr Baba noted.

Mr Williams Bumbom Baba went to ahead to explain that;" The panel members asked Benjamin Dagardu again that where has he voted in the last time of the national election that is in the year 2020 general elections, he admitted that he voted in Kumasi and stated that that his wife was not well and he went to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to treat the sick wife and that was where he got to register in Kumasi and voted in the 2020 general elections."

In this sense, Mr Baba stated that the panel of the vetting committee told Mr Benjamin Dagardu that there are guidelines governing the produces of the vetting processes of the candidates contesting the constituency executive position and they offered him these guidelines of the NDC to read himself.

However, after Mr Benjamin Dagardu read the guildlines himself, he quickly went down on his nice and started pleading with the vetting committee and asked for favour and that he promised anytime they opened transfer of votes, he would transfer his vote and the panel said for now you he should go out and they would take their decision later and get back to him.

And that when Mr Benjamin Dagardu went out from the vetting room, he started calling his boys that they had disqualified him and that the boys should come to attack the members of the panel of the vetting committee," Mr Baba affirmed.

Mr Baba also shared what has triggered the disqualification of Emmanuel Kwaku Boam from the race as the Pru East Constituency Organiser.

He pointed out that a petition has been appeared before the panel of the vetting committee that Emmanuel Kwaku Buam came into the constituency to join the NDC less than two years and that he came into the constituency somewhere November 2020 and joined the NDC.

The petitioners, according to Mr Baba, had made it that that Mr Boam was not qualified per the guidelines for the conduct of the election of the officers of the NDC to contest the position.

"Additionally, he said the petitioners further raise an alarm bell in their petition that when they went through the branch register where Emmanuel Kwaku Boam name was in the register and that they realized that they used the correction fluid to cancel somebody name who was a lady by name Philominal and then wrote his name (Emmanuel Kweku Boam) to replace her.

"The development, the petitioners noted which was a complete fraud and criminal acts against the constitution of the NDC. The situation which has amounted to the disqualification of Mr Boam," Mr Baba told the journalist.

He explained that these were some of the things contained in the petition and that when he appeared before the vetting committee, the fist question they asked was that he should gave them his house number. 

"And if you look at register as we speak, the register is the regional level but if we look through the register, you realized that the original name has been used the correction fluid to clean and rewrote another name and the profession, age, occupation, voter ID card colum of the person have been cleaned with correction fluid, except the house number of the original name of the person on the register has been left untouched.

He mentioned that when the vetting committee asked him of his house number, he gave a different house number which was not what was in the register.

He maintained that "so when they asked him why is it that you used a correction fluid to clean all these things and rewrote these names, Emmanuel Kweku Boam responded that he was not aware of the duplications of the name and figures in the register."

"To prove Emmanuel Kweku Boam wrong, the vetting committee members used a lesser  light to light on the register and you could see clearly a name on the register as something like Philominal that was a lady name that they used the correction fluid to clean and rewrote his name, Emmanuel Kweku Boam in the register," Mr Williams Bumbom Baba told the journalist.

He asserted that the panel members of the vetting committee asked  Emmanuel Kweku Boam that when has he joined the NDC,and he responded that he has been in the party since then.

 "And the vetting committee members asked Emmanuel Kweku Boam, the voter lD card which he used to register from which constituency and he responded that the voter lD card was done in the one of the constituencies in Kumasi. 

"And they asked him, does it means that at the time of registering you went not even a member of the branch, so if you are not a member of the branch and you don't have a voter ID Card at that branch how did you get to register? And Emmanuel Kweku was there.

"From here the vetting committee members asked Emmanuel Kweku Boam to also step aside and after the vetting they would attend to him." Quickly what we saw was that Emmanuel Kweku Boam also went to organize his boys and they almost lynched the members of the vetting committee.