The rancor within the rank and file of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over their new ID card matters has hit the crescendo and is begging for immediate resolution for general acceptance and regularization.
Few weeks ago, the General Secretary (GS) of the NPP Mr. Kwabena Agyapong launched the party’s new internet portal for raising funds as well as the party’s new identity card (ID) in Accra.
On the occasion of the launch the GS mentioned that “this is the officially sanctioned platform and I mean this is the platform that has been approved by the Finance Committee of the party and sanctioned by the National Chairman (Paul Afoko) which is what our constitution mandates us to do so this will from now on be officially recognized party card that true party members ill have.”
But before the launch however the National Treasurer Mr. Abankwa Yeboah had declared the exercise illegal saying; “I want to say categorically clear that the NPP and the National Executive Council (NEC) has not approved any party website www.nppcentre.org to raise funds for the party, nothing of the sort have been approved. All approvals for every fund raising activity go through the NEC and being the secretary and member of the Finance Committee nothing of the sort have been placed before the NEC and I want to say that the website is illegal”.`
However the argument as to what is legal or illegal does not lie in the interpretation or the understanding of the GS, National Chairman (NC)and his 2nd Vice (Sammy Crabbe)on one side opposed to the National Treasurer’s understanding or interpretation on the other but the bare truth is that the party’s own constitution in Article 9(B) section 5a(ii) is explicit on these matters and it stipulates thus; “it shall be the duty of the Finance Committee to raise funds necessary to finance the operations of the party in conformity with the applicable laws. It shall report on its activities to the National Chairperson.” Meanwhile per the party’s own arrangement and settings, the Chairman is supposed to present the Finance Committee’s report and his own recommendations before the NEC of the party for approval and action thereof.
But it appears that the launch by the National Chairman, General Secretary and the 2nd Vice Chairman hadn’t seen the approval of the NEC per the Treasurer’s assertion and that could well be the reason why only the three of them out of elected executives were present at such a major aspect of the party’s campaign for 2016 elections.
Conspicuously missing at the launch was the flagbearer of the party who is supposed to be the direct beneficiary of the fundraising.
The confusion here is arising out of the fact that the Finance Committee of the NPP had started some work to help them raise funds and had proceeded to invite five companies to present their proposals which included Mobile Content.Com Ltd, ABE Ventures Ltd, Paymenex Ltd, Atom X and Information Systems Ghana (ISG).
At this point, Paymenex Ltd was authorized to do a presentation at the invitation of the National Chairman to present their proposal without prior information to the other interested parties and was later invited for negotiations leading to signing of contract between them and the party.
But, the moral of the story is, before 23rd and 24th December 2014 when the presentation of proposals took place, a website (www.the nppcentre.org) was created with a donation page for collection of funds on behalf of the party without the authorization of the party and surprisingly Paymenex Ltd listed the same website as their contact for fundraising and membership registration. Documents available suggest that the www.thenppcentre website was created in 2013-09-26 and updated in 2014-09-24 standing in the name of one Sandra Crabbe. Another website with the domain name as NPPCENTER.ORG was also created in 2015-08-09 and updated on the same date with the expiry date of 2016-08-09 also in the name of Sandra Crabbe for the same purpose of fund raising for the party.
Madam Natasha G.A Cofie was reported and arrested by the Nima Police station for also operating the nppcentre.org for online registration of members with registration fees of Ghc10 paid to airtel number 0268092150 and Ecobank account number 0593014457860901(Madina Branch).
Interestingly, indications are that all the money accrued from the above mentioned ventures so far could not be found in the coffers of the party treasury.
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