INTRODUCTION: The Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) appointed a Special Committee to investigate and make appropriate recommendations on
a. the events that transpired during the vetting of aspirants for the Odododiodio constituency on October 13, 2023, and
b. an appeal process that has been filed in respect of the illegibility of one of the aspirants, Michael Nii Yarboi Annan.
COMPOSITION OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE
a. Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho (Chairman) – Former Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana
b. Dr. Samuel Sarpong – National Vice Chairman, NDC
c. Mr. George Loh – Deputy, Director Legal, NDC
d. Ms. Obuobia Darko-Opoku – Deputy Director of Communications, NDC
e. Hon. Peter Lanchene Toobu – MP for Wa West Constituency
TERMS OF REFRENCE
a. To investigate the violence that occurred during the parliamentary vetting process for the Odododiodio constituency on October 13, 2023.
b. To examine the appeal process related to the eligibility of one of the aspirants, Michael Nii Yarboi Annan; and
c. To make recommendations based on the findings of the investigation.
PROCEDURE
The Committee, in the discharge of its mandate, extended invitations to the following party officials:
a. Hon. Theophilus Tetteh Chai – Greater Accra Regional Secretary NDC
b. Hon. Alex Segbefia – Director of International Relations NDC and Chairman of the Odododiodio Vetting Committee
c. Mr. Ivan Mensah – Petitioner
d. Members of Odododiodio Constituency Executive Committee represented by
i. Paul Oblie Laryea – Chairman
ii. Andrew Aryee – Secretary
iii. Boye Issah Quartey – Organizer
iv. Patience Bruce Dodoo – Women Organizer
v. Mustapha Weltey – Communication Officer
vi. Ibrahim Tahir – Youth Organizer
e. Hon. Johnson Asiedu Nketia – National Chairman NDC
f. Mr. Michael Nii Yarboi Annan – Parliamentary Aspirant
g. Mr. Alfred Nii Kotei Ashie – Parliamentary Aspirant
h. Mr. Emmanuel Nii Okai Laryea – Parliamentary Aspirant
i. Hon. Nii Lantey Vanderpuye – Member of Parliament Odododiodio
j. Hon. Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo – Former Member of Parliament Kpone
Katamanso
K. The following people also petitioned the party.
- Mohammed Issah
- Daniel Bosomprah
- Musah Abass
- Joshua Lumor
- Jacob Akuffo
- Daniel Obill
- Daniel Nii Baah Mensah
- Alhassan Ibn Abdallah
However, the issues raised in their petitions apart from Alhassan Ibn Abdallah are not different in material particular from that of Ivan Mensah. We therefore did not see the need to invite them before the committee.
Furthermore, we dismissed the petition of Alhassan Ibn Abdallah because there is no substance in it.
Ivan Mensah filed a petition seeking the disqualification of Michael Yarboi Annan for both branch chairman and parliamentary candidate hopeful positions. This petition was made under the provision of Section A Subsection 4(II) of the guidelines governing branch elections which states that; “to qualify to contest elections at the branch level the aspirant must be an active member in the last four years within the branch” Per his petition It is important to note that if Michael Yarboi Annan is deemed ineligible for the branch chairman role, he would consequently be ineligible to run for the parliamentary candidate position.
FINDINGS - The controversy surrounding Michael Yarboi Annan’s eligibility to contest in the NDC parliamentary candidate election was a major factor contributing to the violence on the day of vetting October 13, 2023, where three aspirants were vetted namely Michael Nii Yarboi Annan, Alfred Nii Kotei Ashie and Emmanuel Nii Okai Laryea.
- After the vetting and balloting, Michael Nii Yarboi Annan and his supporters left the vetting premises. Subsequently, supporters of Alfred Nii Kotei Ashie, followed by those of Emmanuel Nii Okai Laryea, stormed the vetting venue, vandalizing properties and engaging in stone-throwing. They terrorized the members of the Vetting Committee; members of the Greater Accra Regional Executive and others present. They broke almost all the chairs at the venue and damaged other party property. The cost of the damage incurred on the day of vetting amounts to approximately GHC11,000.00. They manhandled a female journalist from Citi FM by name Akosua Otchere.
- The Committee discovered that Michael Nii Yarboi Annan was formerly a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and had contested and lost the NPP parliamentary primaries in September 2019.
- During the interaction with the constituency executives, a few of them expressed dissatisfaction with an ex-NPP member like Mr. Annan being allowed to contest in the NDC parliamentary primaries when he hasn’t attained the four years mandate.
- The Committee found that Mr. Annan had financially supported the election campaign of most of the constituency executives during the 2022 constituency elections, including some of the executives who are now opposed to him.
- The Committee also found that Mr. Annan had financially supported a number of NDC party activities in the Odododiodio constituency with the endorsement of the MP and members of the constituency executive.
- During Committee discussions, it was revealed that a secret oral agreement had been arrived at between the Member of Parliament for Odododiodio, the Constituency Chairman and the Constituency Deputy Secretary to make Mr. Annan a member of the party in the constituency. The three(the MP, the Chairman, and the then Deputy Secretary) claimed the secret oral agreement was a strategy. Interestingly the then Constituency Secretary, who is now an
aspirant by name Alfred Nii Kotey Ashie was, however, excluded from this meeting. - No evidence could be found to support the claim that the leadership of the party at the national level had been properly informed about this secret agreement.
- The NDC Laryea House Branch register contains the name of Mr. Annan as having been registered in 2019 as a member of the NDC. An investigation of the register shows no signs of cancellation and substitution, neither is there any other evidence that the register had been tampered with.
- The Constituency Secretary confirmed that continuous registration has been taking place in the constituency since 2018. The constituency executives failed to underline the register at the appropriate position indicating an end to one era of registration. After Mr. Annan’s name on the register, there are forty-eight (48) more entries of other registrants for 2019; ten (10) for 2020; twelve (12) for 2021 and six (6) for 2022.
- The Committee found that Mr. Annan has one of the old NDC membership cards (the foldable card with membership number H200630068) showing payment of dues starting from January 2017 to 2019, even though Mr. Annan is supposed to have been registered in the NDC in 2019.
- The foldable card has on it Mr. Annan’s EC voter ID number as 4449012952 but it is a voter ID number which was acquired in July 2020. The Committee found this to be a mystery because how can a 2019 membership card have an EC Voter Registration number of 2020 when that voter ID was not in existence. When questioned about this, Mr. Annan said the ID anomalies were not due to his actions as the NDC registration card was presented to him by the Constituency Chairman.
- The Committee also found that Mr. Annan has one of the new NDC membership cards (green laminated) but that card has no slot for date of issuance so there is nothing on the face of the card to indicate when it was issued.
- Further findings revealed that Mr. Annan held the position of Branch Chairman in Laryea’s House Branch effective 2022, even though he had not met the four-year requirement to be a branch executive in accordance with branch reorganization guidelines.
- Some members who defected from the NPP along with Mr. Annan to the NDC were also elected as branch executives in the NDC even though they had also not met the time requirements.
- Despite Mr. Annan’s claim of joining the NDC in 2019, evidence was adduced to show that he was still publicly associating with the NPP after 2019.
Examples are:
a. a poster with the face of Mr. Annan, advertising a political discussion on a program known as The Voice (which is an NPP program) to take place on July 27, 2020, in which he was described as “a security analyst and member of the NPP”, and spoke on behalf of the NPP.
Mr. Annan did not dispute this when questioned but explained it on the basis of the secret oral agreement referred to paragraph 7 above;
b. Mr. Annan actually went for the programme and spoke as a representative of the NPP;
c. a Facebook page post dated February 12, 2021, in which Mr. Annan indicated that he had officially informed some opinion leaders and members of his campaign team of his decision to jump ship from the NPP to the NDC.
OBSERVATIONS - One key observation of the committee was the seeming conflict between section 2(iii) of the Guidelines for the parliamentary elections and article 41(8)(b) of the NDC Party’s Constitution.
- Article 41(8)(b) states that “a member must be an active member of the party at the constituency level for the four years immediately preceding the date of filing nominations”.
- However, under the guidelines for the parliamentary elections indicated in section 2 (iii), that there are two exceptions to this rule, to wit, where an exception is made by FEC or where the person is a member of a foreign or external branch of the party.
- It is the Committee’s observation that this seeming conflict be carefully considered in future when drawing guidelines.
- The Committee observed that there is a general disregard for party rules, directives, and constitutional provisions, and that this has contributed immensely to the situation that the party finds itself in the constituency. Examples of such directives are – not underlining the register indicating an end to one era of registration and allowing unqualified persons to occupy office at the branch level.
- The Committee observed that the Member of Parliament and majority of constituency executive members and NDC members in the constituency support Mr. Annan’s bid to contest the parliamentary primaries.
- Not surprisingly, there are sharp divisions in the constituency along the line of the three parliamentary aspirants.
- Mr. Ivan Mensah, who had filed a writ in court over this matter, had assured the Committee that he was going to withdraw the action. However, he subsequently informed the Committee that he had had a change of mind and was no longer going to withdraw the case. He sent the following message to the committee via WhatsApp:
“Please with the greatest of respect I have talked to my lawyer, Constituence(Sic) and aggrieved supporters of the party. What am doing is not for my own interest and selfishness but the party supporters who are always short-changed. My quest is for the interest of the party, constituency and NDC party members who lost their lives in the line of duty. I believe the committee can forward their report to FEC without my withdrawal letter. If the report and decision by FEC represent the true reflection and defends the party constitution, I will gladly withdraw the case. The entire Constituency is looking up to the committee to uphold the true principles of the NDC party and protect the constitution of the party. Honourable Nii Lante Vanderpuye is destroying the party in the Constituency and he thinks he’s more powerful and superior than any party member but it’s time we let him know some of us worked and sacrifice for him without demanding anything in return. Please the party’s constitution should be uphold(Sic) to defend the party and stop this bad precedence from happening in this Constituency. Thank you Honourable. God richly bless you and make the NDC party Great and Strong”. (Unedited) - The Committee observed that if the petitions submitted before the vetting day had been handled timeously, especially at the Greater Accra regional level, it could have saved the party some of these problems in the constituency.
- The Committee observed that the foundation of the current problems was laid by the executive members of the constituency since certain infractions in question could not have been executed without the executive. A registrant does not take a constituency register and register himself; a member of the Party does not take his membership card and fill in dues for wrong years himself; a member of the Party running at branch level does not vet himself, neither does he review his nomination forms himself to ascertain whether he qualifies to run for a certain position. All these are the responsibility of the NDC Odododiodio executive officers who by their actions and inactions have allowed this situation to be created obviously to implement their secret oral agreement.
- The Committee further observed that the Member of Parliament for the constituency seems to be in the middle of the melee.
RECOMMENDATIONS - Considering the overwhelming evidence presented, the Special Committee is unable to endorse Mr. Michael Yarboi Annan’s qualification to contest for the parliamentary primaries in the Odododiodio constituency based on article 41(8)(b) of the NDC Constitution which provides that “a member must be an active member of the party at the constituency level for the four years immediately preceding the date of filing nominations”.
- The Committee has taken note of the exception clause in the Guidelines which allows FEC to grant exceptions to the four-year rule. The Committee is, however, of the opinion that this is problematic because the NDC Constitution takes precedence over the Guidelines and the Constitution does not provide for this exception.
- The Committee recommends strongly that in future the Party ensures that guidelines for the parliamentary and other elections are consistent with constitutional provisions of the Party. Alternately, if the Party believes that such provisions are necessary, then the Constitution be amended to reflect this.
- The Committee recommends that security measures at vetting venues should be improved to ensure the safety of vetting panels, aspirants and party members. A security plan should be developed for such exercises and the relevant authorities should be notified to handle any security issues promptly. Furthermore, the culture where supporters are bused to vetting centers should be discouraged.
- The Committee recommends that the two aspirants Alfred Nii Kotei Ashie and Emmanuel Nii Okai Laryea are surcharged and made to pay for the damage to Party property before being allowed to contest in the election.
- The Committee recommends that the Party compensate Ms. Akosua Otchere, the journalist who was manhandled on the vetting day to take care of her medical expenses.
- In view of all the above, the Committee strongly recommends that the Party adopts the Odododiodio constituency as a special project at the national level to ensure that we win the Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 2024.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this report is limited to the mandate in the referral but cannot be a panacea to bring peace and unity in the constituency.
Given the entrenched positions of the various interest groups and taking note of the massive support Mr. Michael Yarboi Annan seems to have on the ground, the Committee strongly advises that the Party considers a political solution, and that this should be done before the parliamentary primaries.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) and the leadership of the party for entrusting us with this responsibility. It was an important and challenging undertaking, and we appreciate your confidence in our ability to conduct a fair and thorough investigation.
We also commend the commitment of the flagbearer and FEC to uphold the democratic principles and integrity of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
We trust that the Party will continue to thrive as it seeks to represent the interests of the people of Ghana.
Please find attached the necessary documents serving as evidence for the report.
1.Art work of a Tv show on Adoa tv where Micheal Yarboi Annan represented the NPP.
2.Facebook post by Micheal Yarboi Annan
3.Notice of poll for the Npp parliamentary primaries in 2019
4.A flier where Micheal Yarboi Annan is seen contesting for NPP primaries
5.Micheal Yarboi Annan’s party card
6.Micheal Yarboi Annan’s old voters ID card
7.Foldable party card which indicates dues payment for Micheal Yarboi Annan
8.Laryea’s house branch register
9.Micheal Yarboi Annan’s new voters ID card
10.Micheal Yarboi Annan’s branch chairmanship nomination form
Dated 8th November 2023
Signed by.
Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho (Chairman)
Ms. Obuobia Darko-Opoku (Secretary)
Dr. Samuel Sarpong (Member)
Hon. Peter Lanchene Toobu (Member)
Mr. George Loh (Member)
