All four aspirants contesting the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Atiwa East Constituency in the Eastern Region, Abena Osei-Asare, have been disqualified after meeting the Vetting Committee, Saturday afternoon.
They are Ernest Adade Owiredu, Kudjoe Amega Kafui, Eric Agyarko, and Dr. Benny Frank.
Abena Osei-Asare who is also a deputy Minister of Finance now remains the only candidate for the party’s parliamentary primaries in the constituency.
The Regional Secretary of the NPP, Jeff Konadu interacting with journalists after the vetting exercise said the quartet were disqualified for conspiring with some party members to invoke curses on the Regional Vetting Committee ahead of the vetting process last week.
Their disqualification, he added, is to maintain discipline in the party.
Some supporters of the party from Atiwa East Constituency ahead of the vetting exercise on Saturday stormed the Residency of the Eastern Regional Minister at Koforidua, venue for the vetting exercise, and rained insults on the Regional party Chairman, Kingston Kissi and his executives.
They had suspected them of manipulating the exercise much in favour of the incumbent MP and to the detriment of their candidates.
Their reaction resulted in chaos at the vetting grounds. It took the intervention of the Police Officers at the residency to restore calm.
The deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Obiri Yeboah, who is the Chairman of the Eastern Regional Vetting Committee, on his part said the disqualified aspirants had bad records, despite their personalities and documents.
According to him, some others who were also disqualified had to do with numerous petitions written against them by their own constituency executives.
Invoking of curses
Some members of the NPP claiming to be polling station executives of the elephant family last week invoked curses on any individual or group that attempt (s) to disqualify any of the four aspirants contesting the incumbent MP who is also a member of the Parliamentary Service Board.
The men who were bare-chested and clad in pieces of red cloth around their heads and arms called on the gods to kill family members of the said individuals or group that attempt (s) to circumvent the vetting process in favour of the incumbent MP.
“We invoke a curse on any member of the vetting committee who attempts to disqualify any of the four men contesting the incumbent MP. His children and wife must be annihilated. Any vetting committee member who shows bias towards one candidate must also be dealt with”, their noted in their incantations.
The disgruntled party members led by one Nana Ofori further noted “we travelled to a powerful shrine to invoke this curse. We are not joking. They risk their own life if they think we are joking. We are not going to allow bribes to ruin our party. Some constituency executives are following the money to destroy the party”.
