“Everything we do in life must be guided by the natural rule of justice. It cannot be said that for a party that contested the results of the 2012 elections at the Supreme Court, it will operate without the natural rule of justice”.
Alfred Ogbamey, Managing Editor of the defunct Gye Nyame Concord newspaper made this comment in connection with the brouhaha surrounding the eligibility of Mr. Paul Afoko to contest the chairmanship position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The Vetting Committee of the NPP is yet to decide the fate of Mr Afoko whose quest to contest for the chairmanship position of the party is still hanging.
The controversies started when Mr. Afoko appeared before the vetting committee to be vetted.
The aftermath of the vetting indicated that Mr. Afoko was not satisfied with proceedings during the vetting especially when he was bombarded with questions from various petitions the committee is said to have received.
Mr Afoko in a statement, bemoaned: “if there is anyone to blame then it must be those who accepted hook, line and sinker an anonymous petition that is not backed by any shred of evidence and proceeded to ask me questions from that same petition and even suggested that the burden of proof is on me and not the petitioner”.
Speaking to the issue on ‘Kokrokoo’ Alfred Ogbamey said the Vetting Committee should have conducted an investigation to verify the authenticity of the content of the petition before ‘confronting’ Mr Afoko with it.
“You have received a petition; common sense (excuse my language) says you have to take your time and study the petition, investigate whether it has basis or not before confronting the person. If what Paul Afoko has said is anything to go by, then the vetting committee, despite the knowledgeable people on board, did not do well.
Alfred asked the vetting committee to make public who the petitioners really are as well as the content of the petition or “the impression will be created that they are intentionally doing that to set him up”.
“If the letter is not anonymous then what prevents them from making the petitioners known?” he asked.
However, Hon. Dan Botwe, Member of Parliament for Okere pointed out that it will be irregular on the part of the vetting committee or any other institution for that matter, to disclose the source (of a petition) or content of their information.
He added that “it is not possible for the vetting committee to target one person and run an agenda against him”.