The Constituency Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Dome Kwabenya says presenting incumbent Member of Parliament Sarah Adwoa Safo again as the party’s parliamentary candidate may spell doom in 2024.
Theophilus Ansah Larbi claimed such a move would only see the fortunes of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) rise.
For him, it will be even more difficult to campaign for the NPP if Adwoa Safo is retained as the parliamentary candidate.
He revealed the party laboured to win the seat in the 2020 elections due to the attitude of the Member of Parliament.
“In the last elections, all these things Adwoa [Safo] has been doing started before the elections,” Mr Ansah Larbi disclosed on TV3 on Thursday, September 14.
“She didn’t help in the campaign, she did not do anything after the election, and she just went away after the election [and] she is just coming back to apologise.”
Mr. Ansah Larbi expressed this resistance to Adwoa Safo’s comeback after she apologised to key party stakeholders, including the executives in the Dome Kwabenya Constituency led by Chairman Bonsu.
“. . .I wish to state that I am sincerely sorry. I apologise for my actions and inactions. None of my actions were intentional, deliberate or calculated to bring disrepute to our great party,” she said in a post on Thursday, September 14.
“I was going through a lot as a mother and as a woman. I want to take this opportunity to ask for your forgiveness for anything untoward that I have done to bring the name of the party into disrepute.
“As the saying goes, ‘To err is human and to forgive is divine’. I ask for your forgiveness.”
Mr Ansah Larbi accepted the apology but said it would be difficult for her to be retained, stressing this is even from him as a delegate and leader in the Constituency.
“Apology well-taken but I think if we give the seat back to Adwoa Safo, the votes of the NDC will increase again, which we wouldn’t like going into 2024.”
He expressed sadness at how the National Democratic Congress amassed an unprecedented 50,000-plus votes in the 2020 elections.
“But for the first time, they got it because of certain attitudes our MP put before the Constituency elections.”
The former Deputy Majority Leader had served notice of seeking a fourth parliamentary term on the ticket of the NPP in the 2024 elections.
She would, however, have to win the party’s primaries scheduled for February 2024.
She claimed she had the support of the people to contest for the seat again.
“If the people have called you, what is this apology all about? They have forgiven you because they have called you, so what is this about again? Why worry, then?” the Constituency Secretary wondered.
Mr. Ansah Larbi said as a leader and from wide interactions with supporters of the NPP in the constituency, “What they are telling us is that for what Hon. Adwoa Safo has done within her three terms as an MP, they think there should be a cut at a point.
“If I mean well for the party, there is no way I will support her bid because campaigning will be very difficult even if we will win, it will be very difficult to bring a new candidate.”
