Afoko Sacks NPP Director Of Administration


Paul Afoko, Kwawdo Opare-Hammond and Kwabena Agyepong

There was misunderstanding at the head office of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) last week Friday.

This was when the National Chairman and the General Secretary of the party, Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong respectively decided to relieve the Director of Finance and Administration, Kwadwo Opare-Hammond of his post.

Credible information, which has since been confirmed by Opare-Hammond, former Member of Parliament for Adentan, indicates that he was virtually being hounded out of office.

Drama
He was said to be in his office around 5:30 pm last Friday when he was called to the office of the National Chairman and asked to hand over immediately. He was asked to go and remove all his personal effects from the office he operates.

According to him, when he entered Mr. Afoko’s office, he was told, ‘We have come to the end of the road; we cannot work with you anymore so we have recruited somebody.’

For a moment, Mr Opare-Hammond said he became confused because it was as if he had committed a crime since the Chairman was bent on following him to his office to remove his personal effects and make the former MP hand over the keys to the place.

This, he said, compelled him to ask what his offence was but that did not elicit any response; he was told it was a National Steering Committee decision that was being carried out.

Uncertainty
Checks by DAILY GUIDE have established that even though the issue about appointment of officers came up at the last Steering Committee meeting, no concrete decision was taken on it.

This development has therefore come as a surprise to some members of the Committee who are bemused at the two-man show being staged by Afoko and Agyepong.

Not even a plea by beleaguered Opare-Hammond for due process to be followed could suffice since according to him, he was appointed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) and it was the same body that could terminate his appointment.

He asserted that he was asked to go together with the man who had supposedly been appointed to replace him, Edwin Tetteh, to pack his personal effects from the office and hand over the keys to him (Tetteh).

Edwin Tetteh was the Manager of Kwabena Agyepong’s campaign to become the party’s General Secretary.

Opare-Hammond therefore went to the office with his supposed successor   but had a change of mind. He said he locked the place and took the keys away, leaving Tetteh in a confused state.

It is however, unclear whether Mr. Tetteh had been appointed by the National Executive Committee since all directors, this paper learnt, are approved or appointed by the NEC.

DAILY GUIDE has learnt that such appointments go through NEC because the officers are virtually seen as the ‘civil servants’ and the institutional memory of the party.

Some believe there is a grand scheme to hound not only Opare-Hammond, but other appointed officers out of the headquarters.

Agenda
Immediately after the Tamale Conference which saw the election of current Chairman, Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyepong, some newspapers sympathetic to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) began serialising publications to the effect that heads were to roll among the directors at the headquarters of the NPP because of their purported affiliation to twice defeated flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

What made it more interesting was the fact that most of these papers could actually tell with timeframes when these dismissals were to happen.

Others have therefore wondered whether it was the same Kwabena Agyepong who promised to work with the party structures and constitution during his campaign.

Attempts to speak to both Mr. Afoko and Mr. Agyepong proved unsuccessful since they did not answer calls this reporter made to their mobile phones.

 By Charles Takyi-Boadu
 

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