Election 2024: Group demands setting up of independent committee by CPP’s Council of Elders to oversee preparations

A group calling itself Concerned Comrades of Convention People’s Party (CPP), is asking the party’s Council of Elders to sit up and help resolve the wranglings within the party’s hierarchy.

The group is demanding the Council to call for an emergency Central Committee meeting to set up what they have described as a truly Independent Committee to lead the charge of reorganizing the Party.

At a press conference on Thursday July 4, the group prayed the Independent Committee would be established with competent people who wish well for CPP ahead of the 2024 general elections.

Below is the full statement by the group.

CPP CONCERNED COMRADES
PRESS CONFERENCE STATEMENT, 04/06/2024

As members of the Convention People’s Party we woke up on the 15th day of May this year to a correspondence of the Founding Members of the Party under the heading: RE: Resolution of Crises in CPP – Formation of Independent Committee and signed by His Royal Highness Professor Naa Edmund Delle Chiir VIII the Paramount Chief of the Nandom Traditional Area announcing the formation of an Independent Committee to undertake three critical responsibilities under the chairmanship of Wing Commander (retired) Patrick Nelson Sogbojor and the engagements and processes that led to it.

Fellow Comrades, after a careful consideration of the correspondence and the relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Party we, in all humility and respect for the Founding Members of the Party, would want to state for the record that the very act of the Founding Members setting up the supposed Independent Committee is a breach of the Constitution of the Party.

As members of the Party enjoined by Article 13(d) of the Constitution of the Party to respect and uphold the Constitution of the Party as a duty, we, the CPP Concerned Comrades, respectfully call on them to recall the Independent Committee and ensure the constitutionally right thing is done.
Now to the grounds of our call to the Founding Members:
1. The correspondence of the Founding Members indicates that the team of Founding Members in collaboration with the Council of Elders of the Party engaged the Central Committee of the Party as well as other stakeholders of the Party in a series of meetings from 16th May this year to the 18th of May this same year.

2. The correspondence again indicated that the team of Founding Members after the series of meetings with the Central Committee of the Party and the other stakeholders of the Party decided that an Independent Committee be set up.

3. The correspondence further indicated that the team of Founding Members on the 14th day of May this year held a meeting with the National Chairperson of the Party and the rest of the Central Committee members in which the decision of the team of Founding Members that an Independent Committee be set up was unanimously adopted.

Our friends from the media and the general public do take note that, nowhere in the above correspondence was it indicated that the Central Committee of the Party was dissolved after the decision of the team of Founding Members to set up an Independent Committee was unanimously adopted.

Also, the extension of the expired tenure of office of the 16 Regional Branch Executive Committees of the Party and in particular the regional chairpersons was due to expire on 31st May, 2024.

The point we are driving at here is that, the Central Committee of the Party continued to exist and a quorum of 1/3 of its total membership (which is 20 members) required to convene a meeting of the Central Committee could be attained after the decision was unanimously adopted to give effect to the said decision.

It is our contention, supported by the Constitution of the Party, that the setting up of an Independent Committee with the kind of responsibilities assigned to it, shall be the responsibility of the Central Committee and not the Founding Members.

For this very reason the decision should have been referred to the Central Committee of the Party for its consideration and actual act of setting up the Independent Committee.

Constitutionally speaking the meeting between the team of Founding Members, the rest of the Central Committee members and the National Chairperson and Leader of the Party on the 14th of May, 2024 where the decision to set up the Independent Committee was unanimously adopted is not a Central Committee meeting.

This is because, though, the National Chairperson and Leader of the Party was present, she did not preside over it as the Constitution of the Party stipulates in Article 73(c).

In fact it was a dialogue between the three parties aimed at finding a solution to the crises in the CPP.

Again, neither was that a meeting of any constitutionally recognized organ of the Party.

Comrades and friends from the media and the general public, if we may ask, what organ of the Party is a combination of a team of Founding Members, the National Chairperson and the rest of the Central Committee members?

Fellow Comrades, from the above, it is abundantly clear that the decision is not a decision of the Party.

This is why we insist the decision to set up the Independent Committee should and must be referred to the Central Committee to consider and adopt and by so doing makee it a decisionn of the Party.

The failure to do so means its by-products, the 8-member Independent Committee and the 17-member Organization subcommittee, are not committees of the Party and should not be recognized as such but must be dissolved with immediate effect.

But, should it even be considered a decision of the Party, then Article 71(a) of the Constitution of the Party kicks in. This Article of the Constitution of the Party says: The Central Committee shall be responsible for the implementation of the policies and decisions of the Party under the leadership of the National Chairperson.

The unanimously adopted decision to set up the Independent Committee was not implemented by the Central Committee under the leadership of the National Chairperson but by the team of Founding Members under the chairmanship of the eminent overlord of Nandom. A clear case of the violation of the Constitution of the Party.
At this point it is necessary that we remind ourselves of the responsibilities assigned the Independent Committee by the team of Founding Members that set it up. They are:

1. Conduct a thorough assessment of the current state of the Party
2. Draw up a comprehensive reorganization programme including mobilization of resources and the setting up of a functional National Secretariat and oversee its implementation
3. Withdraw all court cases.
The Council of Elders topped it up with the setting up of vetting, congress, elections and operations and fundraising committees and the organization of a National Delegates Congress to elect a flagbearer for this year’s elections.

Considering the above responsibilities assigned to the Independent Committee by the team of Founding Members and the Council of Elders, it is without doubt that it is a committee or an organ or better still an organization, an intra one of course, required and necessary for the administration of the Party and facilitation of its work. Articles 71(a) (1) and 72 are clear that committees and intra-party organs of the Party intended for such purposes shall be established by the Central Committee.

It is imperative that we add that nowhere in the Constitution of the Party is the Central Committee allowed or mandated to authorise or mandate another to set up committees or organs of such nature.

We pray the Founding Members of the Party pay heed to our plea and aappeal to them to withdraw the illegal and unconstitutional Independent Committee.

Failure to do so will leave us with no option than to proceed to the right and appropriate quarters to seek redress.

The facts are therefore that:

1. There was a stakeholder dialogue led by the Founders to resolve crisis in the party
2. It was resolved that an Independent Committee be formed which was actually formed by the Founders
3. The formation of the Independent Committee by the Founders and not the Central Committee was and remains a breach of the Constitution of the Party
4. That notwithstanding there had since not been a Central Committee meeting to adopt and approve of the Independent Committee
5. As such, the formation of the Independent Committee by the Founders is and shall remain an unconstitutionality until otherwise
It is therefore concluded that, there is nothing called CPP Independent Committee and the public and the media should disregard any group that calls itself a CPP Independent Committee.

All organizations and entities should therefore desist in engaging with such so called Independent Committee.

Comrades and Friends from the Media, we members of the CPP Concerned Comrades, in seeking for the progress of the CPP therefore propose that:

1. The National Chairperson and Leader, Council of Elders and the Founders should ensure there is an emergency Central Committee meeting as soon as possible
2. The Central Committee should consider and adopt the decision of the Founders and proceed with immediate effect to set up a truly Independent Committee of competent, ideologically well-grounded comrades to lead the charge of reorganizing the Party
3. The Central Committee working hand in hand with the Council of Elders must ensure that the Party is organized in accordance with the dictates of the Constitution of the Party; from the Polling Stations to the National Level
We demand nothing more, nothing less
Fellow Comrades and our friends from the media, we thank you all for coming and we plead that the media carry our message to all good wishers of the CPP
Kwame Nkrumah Never Dies
Long Live the CPP
Long Live Ghana