Group roots for Afoko as DCE for Builsa North

A coalition of New Patriotic Party (NPP) groups has congratulated President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on appointing David Afoko, cousin of the suspended National Chairman of the party, Paul Afoko, as Builsa North District Chief Executive.

The coalition on Saturday described as groundless the accusation made by some agitators  within the party who staged a demonstration against Mr Afoko’s nomination on the grounds that he campaigned against his own party for their arch rival National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2016.

The pro-Afoko alliance, made up of executives, elders, foot soldiers, members and friends of the NPP, also added that the demonstrators had shown remorse with an open apology rendered to Mr Afoko, who is the Builsa North Constituency Chairman, for the recent demo waged against him.

“Those who did that came to the chairman (David Afoko) and apologised,” the Chairman of the coalition, Isaac Wonemare, told newsmen on Saturday at a news conference held at Sandema to thank President Akufo-Addo for deciding on Mr Afoko as the next DCE for Builsa north.

But just hours after the conference had ended, the leader of the anti-Afoko group, Johnson Achawie, who is also the party’s Builsa North Constituency Youth Organiser, rubbished the claims that his side had apologised for last Wednesday’s rally, saying the press conference could have ended up in chaos if he had appeared at the venue.

“Apologised for what? I am aware of the press conference; but if I had come there, there would have been chaos. I never apologised. What I did was that I went with a family to congratulate him the following day after the demonstration. I went with a family and I could not have withdrawn myself. I only shook his hand. That does not mean I agree with the President on his nomination. That does not mean I have endorsed Afoko. I have never apologised and I will never apologise,” he affirmed.

Afoko campaigned for Nana

Mr Afoko, who has been the NPP’s Builsa North Constituency Chairman for eight years, was among the 212 municipal and district chief executive (MDCE) nominees President Akufo-Addo announced last Wednesday.

The Minister for Local Government, Hajia Alima Mahama, had barely finished making the  announcement in Accra when a strong outburst greeted the choice of Mr Afoko at Sandema, the capital of the Builsa North District. The open protest left a set of furniture vandalised after some members of the party (with red bands strapped around their heads) broke into the party’s constituency office.

 The disappointed men, led by Mr Achawie, alleged in a petition addressed to the President through the Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Bukari, that M. Afoko turned his back on the campaign that eventually brought the NPP back to power in 2016 and, for that matter, did not merit the DCE designation.

Saturday’s news conference saw the pro-Afoko coalition put up a strong defence, with its Secretary and immediate-past Deputy Upper East Regional Youth Organiser, Danwell Adama, telling journalists: “David Afoko stood at the same venue [for] this press conference (Azantilow Guest House) and declared to the hearing of everybody in this auditorium: ‘Vote for the party’s candidate and vote for the flag bearer’. The speculations and the wild allegations that he was not supporting the party’s parliamentary candidate were false. David never campaigned against the party in any form, in any way. That is what we should state categorically,” Adama declared at the press conference.

The pro-Afoko coalition spoke of Mr Afoko as a unifier and at the news conference gave an assurance to President Akufo-Addo that they would support the nominee “throughout the nomination process and his tenure as DCE after he is confirmed.”

But his detractors have vowed to sustain the wild fire they stoked last week against his nomination. And they have threatened to take it even as far as the Flagstaff House.

In response to another claim that the protesters, after the purported apology, returned to the party’s office to fix the door and the furniture they had destroyed, the leader of the demonstrators told Starr News: “Never! They can tell lies. The nominee himself organised a carpenter to repair the door.