Vicky Bright heads to court to set aside NPP primaries at Okaikoi South

A former Legal Advisor to former President John Agyekum Kufuor and Minister of State, Mrs Vicky Bright, is heading to court this week to set aside the outcome of the party’s recent primaries in the Okaikoi-South Constituency.

“Like Mr Phillip Addison went to court to set aside the primaries held at Klottey Korle Constituency, I am also going to court tomorrow on similar grounds to nullify the elections at Okaikoi South,” she told the Daily Graphic.

Mrs Bright, who said she had exhausted all the internal mechanisms of the party, said she was determined to go to court to set aside the outcome of the primaries, as well as the demand for a new party voters register for members of the party at the Okaikoi South Constituency.

This has become necessary because, according to her, the current album was full of irregularities and was not properly constituted.

She said she was committed to ensuring that the right thing was done in the NPP so that “we can win 2016” but pointed out that “first we need to get the moral authority by doing the right thing in the party.”

Mrs Bright blamed Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, the suspended General Secretary, for interfering in the constituency primaries and the mess the party found itself in at constituency.

According to Mrs Bright, there were irregularities with the voters album used to conduct the party’s recent primaries at the constituency, saying “from 2011, the party itself decided to run a new album, particularly for the Okaikoi South Constituency but to no avail.”

NPP dilemma

The NPP has asked for a new voters register and yet at Okaikoi South, there is a problem with the party’s voters register which needs to be fixed, she stated.

In the view of Mrs Bright, the party’s call for a new national voters register but not at Okaikoi South is most worrying.

“If they want systems of the party to work, then this is the time,” she asserted and called on the party to abide by its own rules and regulations “so that we can trust the party.”

Canker at Okaikoi South

Mrs Bright withdrew from the Okaikoi South parliamentary primary of the NPP on matters of principle, leaving incumbent Mr Ahmed Arthur, as sole candidate.

But Mrs Bright said she had a problem with the candidature of Mr Arthur.

“The basis of his candidature as a parliamentary candidate will be void and hollow, ” she stated and pledged her determination to work to remove the canker from Okaikoi South.

The NPP parliamentary aspirant for Okaikoi South said her commitment was informed by the fraudulent nature of the contest and accused her main contender, Mr Arthur, of certificate-cheating.

Giving further reasons why she withdrew from the party’s primary, she explained: “The party simply failed to respond to my numerous petitions. Since May 11, 2015, I had already sent three petitions to the party.”

It is her contention that the NPP’s heart was in the right place but it was certain individuals who were not allowing the right thing to be done within the party and constituency.

Background

Mrs Bright petitioned the party to disqualify the incumbent MP for allegedly forging his certificate from the Ghana Institute of Journalism, an action that led to the postponement of the primary election in Okaikoi South.

But the party's Appeals Committee threw out the petition and set Sunday, August 2, 2015, for the election.

 The election of the 2016 parliamentary candidate for the party in Okaikoi South was riddled with injunctions as Mrs Bright challenged the educational certificates the incumbent Ahmed Arthur submitted to the vetting committee.

But in a statement on Friday, July 31, the NPP General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, gave the green light for the elections in the constituency – and that of Klottey Korle – to come off on Sunday.

Announcing her decision to withdraw from the primary on Sunday, August 2, 2015, Mrs Bright said she had consulted her advisors, as well as family members, before making public the decision on Saturday, August 1. Addressing a press conference a day before the elections, Mrs Bright challenged the processes leading up to the primaries, saying they “go against all the tenets upon which our great party was founded.”