Supporters of Manaf Ibrahim, a former staffer at the Office of the Vice President, say they remain firm and will stand by him in his bid to contest the parliamentary primaries in the Asawase Constituency.
They say the letter from the Office of the Vice President terminating his appointment is not a surprise to them.
According to his campaign team, Mr Ibrahim is yet to be served with the letter from the Presidency on the termination of his appointments.
The supporters reiterated that they still have not recognised the acclamation process which saw the Municipal Chief Executive for Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly, Alhaji Alidu Seidu represent the party as its parliamentary candidate for the 2020 general elections.
Speaking to Citi News, member of the campaign team for Manaf Ibrahim, Abdul Mashood Murtala urged calm among supporters in the constituency.
“To our surprise…we’ve sighted a letter circulating on social media that honourable Manaf Ibrahim was sacked from the office of the Vice President. As I speak with you, we haven’t received any official communique from that office.”
“My boss hasn’t received any letter and even if that is the case, I can assure the NPP party supporters, the delegates and well-wishers that honorable Manaf is coming to contest the elections and will win the seat for the New Patriotic Party,” he said.
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the weekend organised its parliamentary primaries in constituencies it has no sitting Members of Parliament.
It has also set 12th January 2020 to conduct parliamentary primaries for constituencies where it has sitting Members of Parliament.
It will be recalled that Manaf Ibrahim recently secured an injunction on the NPP’s Asawase parliamentary primaries challenging a decision by the party’s leaders to clear a candidate, the Asokore Mampong Municipal Chief Executive, Alhaji Alidu Seidu, to go unopposed.
It is unclear if his court action against the polls is connected with the termination of his appointment.
He had been suspended earlier following some negative remarks he reportedly made against the party and was tasked to publicly withdraw and apologize for the comments.
This development is reported to have led to his disqualification from the primaries.
Manaf is a former Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NPP.