I Did Not Take Part in NDC Meeting – Agbesi

Richard Kofi Attenkah/Chronicle

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ashaiman constituency, Alfred Agbesi has denied a report that appeared in the Monday March 30, 2009 edition of The Chronicle newspaper, under the caption "NDC Chair Fights PV Obeng".

According to the story, at a meeting of top National Democratic Congress (NDC) members, including parliamentarians at the Royal Ravico hotel last Tuesday, the chairman of the party, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, is said to have expressed his dissatisfaction over the kind of power that Mr. Obeng wields at the presidency.

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The story continued that the NDC chairman "Threatened not to fully involve himself in party activities if the issue was not fully addressed and tackled."

"Hon. Alfred Agbesi, the MP for the Ashaiman constituency in the Greater Accra region also shared similar sentiments with the party chairman", the paper added.

Reacting to the story, Hon. Agbesi hinted that he was not at the meeting in question, and said on the day of the meeting, he was at a finance committee meeting at the Speaker’s conference room in Parliament, between 10:00am to 4:30pm.

He said on Thursday March 19, 2009, the National Executive Members of the party came to the Speaker’s conference room to hold a meeting with the NDC legislators, but they had to stop the meeting at 10:00 am to enable the legislators attend to the day’s parliamentary business.

The meeting was therefore re-scheduled to the following day, Monday March 23, 2009, he recounted. He disclosed that he could not turn up on Monday morning for the meeting at the Royal Ravico hotel because he had to attend the finance committee meeting that morning.

He further disclosed that the meeting continued till around 4:30pm, and after the meeting, he called one of his colleague MPs at Royal Ravico hotel, Hon. Charles Hodogbe, MP for North Tongu to find out whether they had finished with the meeting.

The MP explained that Hon. Hodogbe informed him that the meeting was about to close and, therefore, there was no need for him to come to the place.

Explaining further, the Ashaiman MP said Hon. Hodogbe promised to brief him on what transpired at the meeting later in the evening, but because he knew he was going to meet him the following day in parliament, he decided not to call him until the following day.

He therefore did not understand why the reporter should write that he was at the NDC meeting and made a contribution.

On the issue of P. V. Obeng, Hon. Agbesi indicated that for a very long time he has not heard of the man who played a key role in ex-President Jerry John Rawlings’ administration, until on December 5, 2008, on the eve of the election.

According to him, it was at one of the rallies at Ashaiman when he saw him and enquired why he had not seen for such a long time.

He said, Mr. Obeng explained to him that since they were at a rally, they should meet the following day and talk some more on the issue.

Consequently, around 10:00am the following day, we met and had a very extensive discussion on issues concerning the party, during which Mr. Obeng told me that he had been working very hard for the party in the Ashanti region.