If there is any politician in Ghana whose last minute resort to divine intervention to cast out "demons" and put a spell on delegates for another mandate that turned out to be hellish, then, incumbent Member of Parliament for Tema West, Irene Naa Torshie Addo cannot be by-passed.
Having realized Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s strategies to shield her to retain the seat was not watertight enough to avert a cataclysmic defeat at the party's parliamentary primaries, Naa Torshie Addo turned to anointing oil in a last minute move, but this turned out to be disaster.
Even though a high-powered NPP delegation made up of high ranking Members of Parliament, mainly Akufo-Addo loyalists, were dispatched to the Tema West constituency days before last Saturday’s congress to turn things in favor of Naa Torshie, the deputy minority chief whip was thrashed in the primaries.
Even with solid backing of the party’s 2016 flag bearer and the minority in Parliament cum all the machinations to slim the chances of her foremost contender, Naa Torshie Addo managed to poll a paltry 273 votes behind eventual winner Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, who polled a maximum 502 votes to secure the Tema West NPP parliamentary candidate slot.
Clad in all white linen apparel with NPP paraphernalia around her neck to match, Nana Torshie Addo, throughout the voting and counting process, held firmly to a bottle believed to be anointing oil in her hand, with hopes that it will perform the magic for which it was procured.
However, the Tema West MP was left crestfallen and hapless after her votes were counted which signaled that she had lost her bid of representing the people of that part of the country in the 2017 parliament.
With all hopes lost, the outgoing MP mastered courage to give a concession speech but failed to pledge her support for Carlos Ahenkorah to retain the seat for the biggest opposition party.
Mr Ahenkorah had gone through torrid times before being cleared to slug it out with Naa Torshie Addo. He had earlier been disqualified from the race following accusations that he had not nurtured the party in the constituency, a charge he categorically denied.
Though he was later cleared by the NPP’s Steering Committee, Naa Torshie Addo vowed to appeal the decision.
She contended that the Steering Committee does not have the power to revoke Vetting Committee’s decision adding that “I don’t think the steering committee has the locus to do that. They can’t just get up and say that these people should contest. I think they have to be fair to the vetting committee.”
“If I appeal at the National and they still think that there is no case, fine! But I have a right to be heard, I cannot allow discrimination where I’m concerned. So the rules of engagement must be the same for everyone,” she told
But the appeal was dismissed by the Felix Owusu Agyapong committee and Carlos Ahenkorah was given the green light to partake in the primaries. Even through Naa Torshie Addo is yet to pledge full support for the Carlos Ahenkorah, he said the defeated MP may eventually become his campaign manager for the 2016 election.
“Naa Torshie is going to play a very vital role in what we are going to do in Tema West. Indeed, she might even lead our campaign team in 2016,” he added.
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