<<Print>>The leadership of one of the newly-formed political parties, the United Progressive Party (UPP) has been engulfed in a battle of supremacy as confusion has rocked it with a purported dismissal of the founder and Chairman, Mr Akwasi Addai Odike.
Whilst the National Executive Committee (NEC) of party which has its headquarters in Kumasi has claimed they have sacked Odike as their flagbearer and national chairman, Mr Odike on his part has said those claiming to have sacked him have no locus in the party.
Two other executives of the party, the National Treasurer, Mr Emmanuel Akrong and the National Women Organiser, Nana Ama Serwaa Nyarko, have also been sacked for aiding and abetting Odike to do what the national executive termed as “flouting the party’s constitution with impunity and bringing the name of the party into disrepute.”
Odike who is a Kumasi-based business tycoon and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Odike Ventures left the United Front Party (UFP) which he spearheaded its formation under similar circumstances of supremacy struggle to form this new party (UPP).
He contested the 2012 presidential elections as candidate for the United Front Party but following a series of disagreements with the national executive, he left the UFP to form the UPP in 2015.
In a rebuttal, Mr Odike told Graphic Online that the signatories to the letter dismissing him were “fraudsters” who were not known to the party but were just interested in “destroying his name.”
“My brother, ask them to present their party identity cards and dues receipts before you give them any audience”, Odike told Graphic Online.
According to the dismissal letters, copies of which have been sent to the Electoral Commission (EC), Odike and the two others have flouted Articles 28, 29 and 16 (3) of the UPP’s constitution.
A copy of the dismissal letter which is available to Graphic Online also said the decision to expel the three was taken at a NEC meeting held on March 16, 2016. The letter is signed by 13 National Executive members.
The Acting General Secretary, Mr Gabriel Asamoah-Boakye on his part told Graphic Online that the party received a number of complaints on misconduct by Odike and therefore referred same to the disciplinary committee.
He said several letters and personal appeals to Mr Odike to appear and provide answers to those charges proved futile because he never answered any of the calls that were made to him, so the committee recommended his expulsion.
On his part, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party, Mr Crosby Charles Armah, explained that after the elected General Secretary of the party, Mr Razak Opoku, left to join Mr Hassan Ayariga’s newly formed All People Congress (APC) political party, Mr Odike unilaterally appointed his son, Francis Odike as his replacement.
“This is a flagrant violation of the manner and dictates of the party’s constitution and tend to portray the UPP as a one man business full of people who are just pursuing their personal agenda of enriching themselves,” he said.
He said Mr Odike also changed the party’s official letterhead and submitted same to the EC without recourse to any member of the NEC and also used the name of the party to solicit for funds from all manner of quarters without rending account to the party executive.