Calm prevails at Kwabre West NPP constituency

A Kumasi High Court has ruled that the elected executives of the Kwabre West Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are still the legitimate and constitutionally elected executive members.
The members are Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, chairman, Alex Boakye Dankwah, secretary, Owusu Afriyie Elijah, assistant secretary, Joseph Boakye Dankwa, treasurer, Patrick Frimpong, youth organiser and Hannah Appiah, women’s organiser.



(PIX: Odeneno Kwaku Appiah, constituency chairman)
This followed an action initiated by the executives praying the court to declare null and void a purported vote of no confidece masterminded by Mr Kofi Anane, Nana Appiah Kubi, Omono Asamoah all of Kwabre West and the Ashanti Regional Executive of the NPP per its chairperson.
The plaintiffs sought the declaration that the action which was organised on November 11, 2006 was unconstitutional and inconsistent with or in contravention of article 10 of the NPP constitution.
Plaintiffs, in their statemant of claim, said they were constitutionally elected into office as Kwabre West constituency executives of the NPP on September 16, 2005.
They said Article 10 of the NPP constitution stated that a removal of an elected executive member within any constituency of the party was the exclusive constitutional prerogative of the constituency executives subject to some strict constitutional requirements. Plaintiffs argued that whenever 40 percent of the delegates that elected those executives within the constituency gave written notice to the constituency of their intentions to remove the executives or any member from office, the chairperson of the constituency “shall within one week of receipt of the notice circulate such notice to all delegates and shall thereafter, within one month, summon an emergency delegates conference to deliberate and decide on the matter”.
The High Court presided over by Mr Justice Frank Amoah said the defendants had no constitutional mandate or jurisdiction to convey the said emergency delegates conference which declared the vote of no confidence in the executives.
Justice Amoah declared that it was only the constituency chairperson who had the constitutional mandate or jurisdiction pursuant the constitution of the NPP to convey particularly, constituency delegates conference and that, that constitutional power could never be exercised by the Ashanti Regional Executive members.
The court said the purported assumption of the office by Mr Anane, Nana Appiah Kubi, Omono Asamoah as the Chairperson, 1st and 2nd Vice Chairpersons respectively of the Kwabre West NPP constituency was unconstitutional and ultra vires of the constitution of the NPP.
The court, therefore, issued an order restraining the defendants from performing the constitutional functions of the plaintiff as well as purporting to hold themselves out as the substantive constituency executives.
It further issued an order temporarily restraining the defendants from purporting to nominate, appoint, elect or present any persons as delegates from the Kwabre West constituency to participate in the December 22 NPP National Delegates Conference to be held in Accra.
It also issued a consequential order that restrained Mr Anane from sending, presenting and or purporting to nominate and send any list of names of any delegates to take part in the December 22 national delegates conference except the plaintiffs who have such constitutional rights to do so.
Cost of GH¢ 1000 was assessed against the defendants.
Following the declaration by the court, the constituency members met last Saturday at Adwumakaasekese and elected their delegates for the December 22 national delegates conference in Accra.

The elected members were Mr Emmanuel A. Owusu Ansah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwabre West and Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Obiri Yeboah, Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mr Kofi Karikari, Presiding Member of the Kwabre District Assembly, Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, constituency chairman, Alex Boakye Dankwah, Secretary, Omono Asamoah, Vice Chairman, Hannah Appiah, Women’s Organiser, Opoku Aggyemang, Polling station chairman, Adwumakaasekese, Amoah Fordjour, Polling station chairman Ejuratia and Dua Mensah, Polling station chairman, Atimatim.

Woman dies after excessive alcohol intake

A 20 year old woman, who boasted before some young men in Kumasi that she could quaff a full bottle of the alcoholic beverage, “Pusher Gin Betters” ended up losing her life after consuming the stuff.

The deceased, Akua Ataa, was pronounced dead by doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) some five hours after she consumed the drink at the Canadian Drinking Spot at the military barracks in Kumasi.

An eyewitness said at about 4pm on Thursday, December 6, 2007, the deceased went to the Canadian Spot and met a group of young men at the spot drinking various brands of alcoholic beverages.

According to the eyewitness, the deceased boasted before the men that she could quaff a bottle of pusher gin within five minutes without any problem and challenged them to buy her one bottle because that particular drink was not only her favourite but had been taking a full bottle regularly .

While some of the men disputed her claim, insisting that a full bottle of the drink would put her to sleep for hours, the woman dared them to it.

In the ensuing argument, one of the young men paid for the cost of a bottle of the pusher gin bitters and gave it to Ataa who finished the drink within minutes to cheers from the onlookers.

After she had finished drinking the bitters, the woman demanded a bottle of Coca Cola to “top” what she had just drank. They bought it for her and she took it.

Minutes later she collapsed onto her seat but thinking that she was drunk, the men quickly brought mashed kenkey with milk and offered it to her as a way of energising her, but she did not respond to the calls to stand up.

Ataa was left there for sometime, hoping that she would regain her strength, but when they realised that she was still not responding to attempts to wake her up, they rushed her to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) for treatment.

A source close to the Public Relations Directorate of KATH said the woman was brought to the hospital around 9;15 pm on Thursday, at a time that “her heart had completely stopped beating and the eye not responding to any light”.

The source said “medical examination proved that she was dead before she was brought to the hospital”, stressing that if she had been brought earlier, the medical officers would have been able to revive her.

The body of the deceased had been deposited at the mortuary awaiting autopsy.