Some New Patriotic Party (NPP) youth in the Adansi-Asokwa constituency have accused the incumbent MP, K.T Hammond of hijacking the party and manipulating activities there to his advantage, while preventing any contest of his position. But K.T Hammond has come out to debunk all claims, insisting that no one aspiring to represent the constituency has been qualified enough to contest him.
According to him, all those who have filed nominations in a bid to compete with him for the constituency’s seat have been unqualified and to some extent presented forged documents to the party.
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When asked on Happy98.9FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ reasons for the Adansi-Asokwa constituency not holding primaries for the past 20years, K.T Hammond replied, “I came to stand for the first election as an offering because there was no one to contest. In the second term no one contested. But in the subsequent ones, people did contest me. But all of them never qualified to contest in the primaries. They all had problems with their documents. People pick up forms and filed but, their documents always have problems. Some were even found to have forged their files. So if we have not held any primaries in the constituency, these are the reasons.”
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The politician added that, “The National Democratic Congress (NDC) threatened to unseat me and I suffered with the young ones to keep the seat in the Adansi-Asokwa constituency. But whenever it gets to the next election, everyone wants to snatch my seat because I have set the stage for them. They really expect it to be easy but they all get disqualified along the line. Three people have come against me but they have all been unqualified. One dragged the case to the national level and he was deemed unqualified there too”.
For the first time in 20 years, delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Adansi-Asokwa Constituency in the Ashanti Region will be going to the polls to elect a candidate to contest the parliamentary election.
The last five primaries had been by popular acclamation as the incumbent, Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, was always the sole candidate.
However, the entry into the race by a former President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Mr Samuel Binfoh Dakwa, has generated a lot of interest from both party supporters and residents; with Mr Dakwa vowing to unseat Mr Hammond, a political stalwart.
By: Joel Sanco