An independent parliamentary candidate in the Sunyani West constituency, Bernard Oduro Takyi, says the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) is losing its spirit of democracy.
Mr. Oduro Takyi was disqualified from the NPP parliamentary primaries in which he wanted to contest the Employment Minister, Ignatius Baffour Awuah.
He was then dismissed from the NPP in July 2020, for seeking to contest the Sunyani West seat as an independent aspirant.
The independent candidate had earlier suggested that the party’s primaries were not conducted fairly adding that “key sitting MPs in the Bono Region would have lost their re-election bids if the party allowed a fair competition.”
Speaking on Voters’ Diary on Citi TV, the dismissed NPP member said “The NPP which was known to be a doyen of democracy, now appears to be throwing democracy to the dogs. This is not the NPP we read about. This cannot be the Busia and Danquah NPP.”
Speaking on the candidature of the President, Mr. Oduro Takyi said he will be glad should President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo win the 2020 polls adding that the President is “a visionary leader and Ghana needs him for the next four years. His vision resonates with mine. If he wins, hallelujah.”
“I am not going to sit on this platform and say I do not love the NPP upon all the sacrifices I made for the party. I was a party financier in my constituency when we were in opposition. My only issue is the undemocratic and unfair treatments they took me through. I am a person with a disability and you put me through this unfair treatment thinking I will keep mute? No,” he added.
I went independent because NPP treated me unfairly – Bernard Oduro
Bernard Oduro Takyi in an earlier interview with Citi News in October 2020 said his decision to go independent was because of the unfair treatment meted out to him by the governing NPP.
He said the NPP frustrated him for no good reason.
“The party said I was not due for the contest at the vetting level. Then I wrote officially to the party to find out why I was not vetted. I got no response. I then filed an appeal at the party’s parliamentary appeal committee on March 13. On March 18, I met the committee chaired by Peter Mac Manu. They could not give a substantial reason. Days later, I got intel that they are bent on the disqualification. I quickly wrote a letter to John Boadu in April seeking why I was not vetted to go through. No response came. I wrote a letter to the President himself, still no response.”
“The party I loved most never treated me fairly. So I decided that if the elephant will not allow me to ride on its back to Parliament, I will find another way to enter,” he added.
According to the Sunyani West independent parliamentary aspirant, the poor handling of the fallouts from the NPP’s parliamentary primaries weakened the party’s base.