“Suspend me too” – Mpianim dares NPP
Chief of Staff in the John Agyekum Kufuor government, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani is daring the leadership of the opposition New Patriotic Party to suspend him if they feel he has breached the party’s constitution by his recognition of Mr Paul Afoko as still the chairman of the party.
The hitherto respected and influential Chief of Staff who also doubles as a founding member and chairman of NPP finance committee, dependable sources close to him told The aL-hAJJ, is incensed by ongoing suggestions among some top brass of the party to get some party activists, preferable from the Ashanti region to petition the Disciplinary Committee in order to have him suspended.
An obviously enraged Kwadwo Mpiani recently told a close confidant that those in the party who have preoccupied themselves with goading people to petition the party’s Disciplinary Committee to suspend persons who disagree with them should man up and do same to him if “they think I have breached any law”
Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, who was also a Member of Parliament for Afigya Sekyere on the ticket of the Progress Party together with ex-president during the days of the Dr KA Busia’s government, incurred the wrath of anti- Paul Afoko forces in the party when he was recently spotted escorting the latter to court and subsequently; openly chastising the party for suspending Afoko.
While some leading members of NPP, notably bigwigs who are also allies of the NPP flag bearer Nana Akufo-Addo are reported to be mulling over how to discipline Mr. Mpiani, the former chief of staff again stirred the hornet’s nest when he openly rubbished Paul Afoko’s suspension, insisting that the suspended National Chairman is still chairman of the main opposition party.
In a chat with Bola Ray on Starr Fm last week, Mr. Mpiani said he does not recognize the sanctions against Afoko, whom he described as “a fine gentleman,” “he is still the chairman,” stressing that “the party was wrong. Let’s go beyond Afoko…”
His statement, The aL-hAJJ gathered, has angered pro-Akufo-Addo members in the party who are said to be advocating for his suspension. They argue that General Secretary Kwabena Agyapong, 2nd Vice Chairman Sammy Crabbe and some constituency executives were all suspended because they violated the party rules when they insisted Paul Afoko was chairman after he had been suspended.
According to advocates for Kwadwo Mpiani’s suspension, failure of the NPP’s DC to censor him will amount to discrimination in the application of party’s own rules and would leave a blot on the conscience of the NPP.
There are also reports that the National Executive Committee of the party is planning a meeting to discuss how to deal with Kwadwo Mpiani, with some of them fuming that “he (Kwadwo Mapiani) is not above the laws of this party…he is not larger than this party.”
But the man who has been tipped as likely candidate for suspension, sources close to him say, is less perturbed by the plots and machinations to get him out of the party. He is said to have vowed to stand toe to toe with any person seeking to get him out of the party for expressing his opinion.
