The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has suspended a branch chairman in Talensi, a constituency in the Upper East region, after he led a protest news conference recently against a district chief executive (DCE) nominee.
A suspension letter dated April 21, 2025, and addressed to Charles Luu, the branch chairman of the Gorogo Clinic Polling Station, has been in circulation on social media platforms since the evening of Easter Monday.
The party’s constituency secretary, Augustine Mmi-Oni Guure, confirmed signing the letter when Media Without Borders contacted him on Monday.
The letter says Luu’s suspension was occasioned by a petition “a party member” lodged against him in relation to his “conduct” as a member and a branch chairman of the party.
It further states that “disciplinary proceedings” have been opened against him in connection with the petition.
“Pursuant to Article 48i (2) of the NDC Constitution, you are hereby suspended from all party-related activities and referred to the Party’s Disciplinary Committee for further investigation into the allegations brought against you.
“In view of the above, you are directed to immediately hand over all party property in your possession, and transfer the management and administration of your branch to the Branch Secretary,” says the letter.
It concludes: “You are further urged to fully cooperate with the Disciplinary Committee as it undertakes its mandate to determine the veracity or otherwise of the allegations.”
The branch chairman said he had sighted copies of the letter on social media but had not been formally served. While he looks unworried about the development, the letter is amassing public criticism against the party’s leadership as it spreads.
“This is the most useless set of constituency executives I have ever seen in history. When a petition with a serious content was written to a vetting committee against John Millim, you didn’t see the need to act on that petition by inviting Millim to come and answer questions on the allegations in the petition. You rather went ahead to make way for him to be a DCE because of your own shameful interests.
“But now you are suspending a branch chairman and you want him to face a disciplinary committee because he is doing the right thing by exposing you. Is this how normal human beings reason? Your DCE should rather go and face that disciplinary committee with answers to those allegations all of us have read in the petition,” ranted a resident, Pudimsor Baolbil.
The press conference spearheaded by the branch chairman
On Thursday, 10 April 2025, Luu led some NDC supporters at a news conference in Talensi as they chorused their disapproval of the nomination of John Millim Nabwomya as the DCE of the area.
The presser took place five days after the party’s constituency office was set ablaze by some faceless persons hours after Nabwomya was announced as a DCE nominee.
The first reason the party supporters cited at the press conference for their disapproval was an alleged closer alliance and a commander-protégé relationship between the nominee and the Paramount Chief of Talensi, Tongraan Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang.
The paramount chief, they said, was linked to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), having served as an appointee of the immediate-past NPP government as a board chairman of the Tema Oil Refinery for four years.
Secondly, they said the nominee was not qualified for the office because he allegedly incited students of the Kongo Senior High School to stage a riot on Sunday, 21 July 2019, and was transferred from the school after a committee commissioned to investigate the cause of the riot reportedly found him culpable.
The Luu-led NDC supporters also revealed that the nominee had been cited for contempt of the High Court ‘2’ in the region’s capital, Bolgatanga. They argued that it would be risky to appoint him as a DCE as the court had not ruled on the contempt application filed against him and determined the substantive case also involving him.
The aggrieved NDC members further told the press the nominee backed the Tongraan (a supposed NPP favourite) against an NDC-preferred Paramount Chief of Chiana, Pe Ditundini Adiali Ayagitam III, to win the Council of State election held in the region in 2021.
Other reasons for the nomination disapproval
The NDC supporters also accused the nominee of prejudice against Cassius Mining Company Limited, an Australian firm licensed to operate in the district.
They said he collaborated as an assembly member with some people in the district in co-writing a petition against Cassius, resulting in the company filing a heavy suit at the International Court of Arbitration against the Government of Ghana.
“If he could do this as an assembly member, then he would do worse things as a DCE,” their statement warned.
They also alleged that the nominee could not set foot in four communities in the district because he sowed “a seed of division” among them when he was an assembly member and a presiding member a few years ago. They mentioned Namoalgu as an example of those communities.
The supporters ended the press conference by asking President John Dramani Mahama to withdraw the nomination “with immediate effect”.
They said they were “reliably informed” that “the state security apparatus” picked up some intelligence while Nabwomya was being vetted that he was not “suitable” for the office.
They said sources also hinted that a situation report, originating from the state security apparatus, was forwarded to the National Security during the vetting process, forewarning the government that nominating Nabwomya as a DCE would result in “chaos” in the district.
“We plead that President John Dramani Mahama demand a further background check on this nominee and he (President Mahama) should demand a copy of that report because we believe the report was hidden from him prior to the nomination.
“Doing so would not only save the image of the NDC but also inure to the peace and security of the Talensi District as reportedly highlighted in the report compiled by the state intelligence agencies,” the statement stressed.
They threatened to resort to “all necessary” legal actions if their demand was not met.
“We respectfully wish to state that we the members of the NDC in the Talensi District and all well-meaning people of Talensi are ready to acknowledge any of the applicants for that position except John Millim,” the statement concluded.
The president did not withdraw the nomination. All the 31 assembly members in the district subsequently endorsed the nomination amid public suspicions that they were influenced quietly by a Chinese mining company backing the nominee.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
