Wontumi Warns Kodua to Stay Away from Ashanti Regional NPP Affairs
Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, known as Chairman Wontumi, has issued a sharp warning to the party’s General Secretary over what he describes as unwarranted interference in regional matters.
The warning follows a decision by the NPP’s highest decision-making body, acting through the General Secretary, to nullify constituency-level elections in Afigya Sekyere East, Bantama, and Adansi Asokwa, all in the Ashanti Region. Despite this ruling, Wontumi went ahead to swear in the executives elected in those disputed polls, defying the national party’s position.
Addressing party executives in Ashanti Akyem Central, Wontumi insisted that the General Secretary has no authority to make decisions affecting the party at the regional level. He argued that constituencies hold the right to determine their own outcomes, just as he, as regional chairman, does not have the power to override decisions at that level.
He further explained that, according to the party’s constitution, the steering committee does not have the mandate to annul elections. That responsibility, he said, lies with the constituency chairman, with the regional chairman only stepping in to help mediate a resolution between parties if disputes arise. Only when such efforts fail, he added, should the matter be escalated to the national level. He maintained that he would act strictly within the bounds of the party’s constitution, stressing that the steering committee’s role is limited to managing the party’s day-to-day operations, while electoral disputes fall under the mandate of the electoral affairs committee. He argued that due process required proper engagement with him before any judgment was made on the matter.
Wontumi also alleged that he has received intelligence suggesting the General Secretary is working to have him disqualified from contesting the position of national chairman, a move he vowed to resist.
