NDC: Ekumfi Chair�s Defection �Good News�

The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said the defection of its chairman in the Ekumfi constituency of the Central Region, Ekow Essilfie-Buckman, to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is good news.

On Monday, 17 October, Mr Essilfie-Buckman announced his resignation from the governing party, citing various reasons.

He told Class91.3FM’s Emefa Apawu on Monday October 17, that: “There are a whole number of things happening in the party, the regional executives are aware and they are not taking any action, they are not supporting me, so, I feel that I do not have the support of the regional executives, and for that matter if I continue to be in the party, I don’t know what will happen to me.

“I don’t have the cooperation of the DCE and then the MP as well as a section of the executive members who are seen to be on the side of the MP and the DCE, and, so, I am unable to operate effectively.”

But Kwesi Dawood, the Central Regional Communications Director of the NDC, in reaction to the news, said: “We the NDC in the Central Region wholeheartedly welcome the defection of Mr Essilfie-Buckman from the NDC to the NPP. We want to also state categorically to our members that it is good news for the Ekumfi NDC. And the party in the area will continue to move from strength to strength. What the man did is an indication of his failure of the loyalty test we put to him when the party granted him amnesty to return to us after he contested as an independent parliamentary candidate in 2008 and campaigned against late President Atta Mills … in the then Mfantsiman East constituency, now Ekumfi constituency.

“His decision to defect to the NPP never came to us as a surprise… because of his many moves against the fortunes of Abeiku Crentsil, the NDC MP, and the defection of his spokesperson, Mr Adam Seidu, to the NPP last month. They are birds of the same feather, so when Seidu Adams defected last month, we knew Mr Buckman was also going to defect,” he added.

Mr Dawood added that the chairman was suspended from the party in April 2015 by his own executives after they described his actions as “anti-party behaviour and clandestine moves against their sitting MP”.

“It took the regional executives for him to be reinstated but since last year, he has consistently and openly shown hatred against the NDC’s incumbent MP (Abeiku Crentsil) and had vowed to continuously work against him,” he stated.