Supporters of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) especially those in the Central Region, riled by news of their 1st Vice Chairman, Horace Ekow Ewusi’s, alleged criminal conducts and past prison records, have started pressuring the Central Regional Chairman of the party, Robert Kutin, demanding an immediate action.
Failure to act on the matter, the aggrieved supporters and sympathizers of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition say, will leave them with no option than to embark on series of demonstrations against all the regional and national executives of the party.
For them, it is very important for the leadership of the NPP in the Central Region and by extension, the national executives, to show leadership in this crisis moment by ordering Mr. Ekow Ewusi to step aside and fight to clear himself from all the allegations of criminality levelled against him by one Edward Okraku Adum, an ex-convict who is also a member of the elephant family.
“This is a simple straight forward decision. An allegation of defrauding by false pretense and jail break have been leveled against no other person than our First Vice-Chairman in the region, Horace Ekow Ewusi. This is a very serious matter and I expect our regional Chairman, the one and only Chairman Kutin, together with the other executives to immediately act on the matter. They should suspend Ekow Ewusi to give him enough space to clear himself. If Chairman Kutin and his men fail to act, they will see the other side of us”, Kofi Andoh, a resident at Hemang who is a sympathizer of the party told this paper in an interview.
Helena Awotwe, also a sympathizer of the NPP and a resident of Jukwa in the Central Region told this paper that “The allegations levelled against Ekow Ewusi is denting the image of the party and I expect Chairman Kutin and his executives to suspend him until he clears himself of any wrongdoing. Chairman Kutin, this is the time to show leadership and we are with you else we will launch series of protest against you”.
About ten others who got wind of the story told this paper that it is imperative the party investigates Chairman Ewusi so that matters regarding his past are dealt with before the party goes into the 2020 elections.
Edward Okraku Adum, who served jail term at the HMP Prison in the United Kingdom for drug trafficking is demanding the head of Ekow Ewusi.
He has in a petition addressed to the National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, and copied President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the UK High Commissioner to Ghana, National Chairman of the NPP, Freddy Blay, and Chairman Kutin, called for the immediate removal of Mr. Ewusi from office.
He wants the vociferous Central Region First Vice-Chairman of the NPP and a member of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining to be probed, prosecuted and jailed if found culpable since he is not fit for the positions he is occupying both in the party and in government.
Adum contends that Mr. Ewusi has allegedly defrauded him of an amount US$10,000 by false pretense.
Further to that, Mr. Ekow Ewusi has misrepresented himself as the official auctioneer for the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining where he has in his personal capacity, allegedly auctioned most of the excavators which were seized by the Committee but has since not rendered any accounts.
That notwithstanding, Mr. Ekow Ewusi, whom he described as a brother and a friend, is an alleged jail breaker from the HMP Ford Prison in the United Kingdom where he was serving a jail sentence after having been convicted of stealing a car from a car hiring company and illegally shipped to Ghana.
“I submit that, Mr. Horace Ekow Ewusi, in early 2005 was arrested, prosecuted and jailed in the United Kingdom for stealing a car which he had hired from a car hiring company. Mr. Horace Ekow Ewusi subsequently illegally shipped the car which did not belong to him to Ghana without the consent of the owners of the car”, he noted in part of his petition dated May 10, 2019.
Change of Name
He further narrated that the Central Region First Vice-Chairman of the NPP during the period he was serving the jail sentence was known as Horace Brown but surprisingly changed his name to Horace Ekow Ewusi after allegedly breaking jail and sneaked to Ghana to outwit the intelligence of the UK and Ghanaian security agencies.
“Mr. Horace Ekow Ewusi was my colleague at the Ford Prison in the United Kingdom where I had also been convicted to serve a three year jail sentence for drug trafficking. Because he was a Ghanaian, I took him as a brother. We did everything together in the prison as brothers. It is important to know that, Mr. Horace Ekow Ewusi’s name was Mr. Horace Brown at the prison ward when I met him. The HMP Ford Prison is a low class prison for first time offenders and work force and those who want to better their lives. It was more like a rehabilitation center. That was where I met him and got to know him. He subsequently became my younger brother and a friend because we were all Ghanaians which I helped him to get the chance to go to the College which I was then attending. The name of the school is called Northbrook College in the south coast heading towards Brighton. It is situated 20 miles away from the Prison House”, he explained.
Ever since the issue came to the public domain, some sympathizers of the NPP who are worried about the harm done to the party want immediate measures to be put in place to save the image of the elephant family from further sinking, especially, as election 2020 approaches.
Albert Asare, a resident of Moree in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese constituency and a sympathizer of the NPP further told this paper that he can’t wait for Mr. Ekow Ewusi “to be dropped from the regional executives” in order to save the image of the party.
It therefore remains to be seen what action the leadership of the NPP in the Central Region will take against their own whom sources say is untouchable.