Suspended National Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has revealed that the party’s Flagbearer Nana Akufo Addo stopped him from taking disciplinary measures against Ken Agyepong when he made reckless statements insulting Ghanaians and some colleague party members.
According to him, Ken Agyepong, MP for Assin Central who remains an albatross around the party’s neck has been made to feel untouchable by certain party heavy weights including Akufo Addo and continues to make comments that are very damaging to the party and its fortunes.
“Agyapong has been made by the intolerant militant wing of the party to feel he is untouchable, but when I assumed the chairmanship, I was prepared to take him on once and for all. I told Akufo-Addo that I intended to ask the minority leader in Parliament to remove Kennedy Agyapong as a ranking member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications and then I would send him to the National Disciplinary Committee for them to fire a shot across his bows. Akufo-Addo told me not to touch him.
“But I persisted and raised the issue of Agyapong’s crass indiscipline, unruly behavior, and flagrant disregard of party rules and regulations at a National Executive Council meeting, and made a case for why the party should ask the minority leader to push Agyapong from the front bench to the back bench in Parliament, and why the National Disciplinary Committee should take an immediate action against him to deter others.
“Just as Akufo-Addo had told me, members of the intolerant militant wing on the NEC also told me not to touch Agyapong, no matter what he had said or done, I should just leave him alone. They said Agyapong was an asset to the party. First Vice-Chairman Blay even described Agyapong as a gem. I remember General Secretary Agyepong asking Blay twice. A gem, a gem? Blay said yes, a gem. Agyepong then said to Blay: “Mark these words, because I will ask you one day whether this man is really a gem.”
Mr Paul Afoko was speaking to the African Watch Magazine in an exclusive interview.
