Sam Pyne Rubbishes NPP ‘Rent Debt’ Claims

Former Ashanti Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has refuted claims that the party’s Ashanti Regional Branch owes rent for a 3-year period.

Reports on Friday, November 19, 2021, suggested that a meeting by members of the Tertiary Education Students Confederacy of the New Patriotic Party was disrupted by owners of the party’s office who claimed that leadership owes them rent.

According to Mynewsgh.com, the landlady and her children were at the NPP Ashanti Regional Secretariat with the aim of closing down the party office after leadership failed to renew the tenancy agreement they had when the building was secured.

Speaking on behalf of the party’s leadership, former General Secretary of the Ashanti Regional branch of the NPP, Sam Pyne denied the assertions.

The now Mayor of Kumasi said the party owes no such monies and that the party as at last month had made a payment of GHC 30,000 to the landlady and her family following an earlier GHC 50,000 payment.

According to citinewsroom.com, Sam Pyne said he decided to speak about the matter only because he was worried about the embarrassment it was bringing to the party’s image.

“I am surprised about the news item on social media that we owe… It is true that we rented the premises for our operations. We have an agreement with the landlady and I handed a cheque of GHS50,000 to the family as the continuation of our stay here. Just last month, we gave them an additional GHS 30,000 as part of the agreement on the tenancy so I was surprised that someone was saying that we owe,” he said.

Mr. Pyne further noted that the facility was being maintained contrary to claims that it had been left in bad shape by the party.

“We pay for the electricity and water for the boy's quarters so I am quite surprised. Discard that story. We don’t owe anybody… For whoever is making those claims we don’t have an agreement with that person. Those that we have an agreement with, they don’t have any issue with us.”

Meanwhile, Sam Pyne maintained that plans are far advanced to ensure that the party has its own structure to serve as a regional secretariat.