The National Democratic Congress Central Regional Communication Officer, Gabriella Tetteh, has disclosed that the failed NPP parliamentary candidate in the Assin North by-election Charles Opoku wanted to run for office on the NDC ticket.
According to Ms. Tetteh, he expected the umbrella family to replace him with the embattled politician James Gyakye Quayson but his lobbying proved futile.
Gabriella Tetteh disclosed on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV on Monday, July 3, 2023.
“This gentleman [Charles Opoku] approached the NDC executives in the constituency that he wanted to contest for parliament and he was expecting that we set aside Gyakye Quayson and make him our parliamentary candidate,” she divulged.
“I want to applaud the NDC constituency executives in Assin North. Aside pulling off a very great election and from the very onset standing with honorable James Gyakye Quayson and not allowing this gentleman’s [Mr. Opoku] bid to be an aspirant for the NDC not even seeing the light of day,” the NDC Central Region Communication Officer stated.
She further described Mr. Opoku as unqualified to be a parliamentarian, explaining that he lacks most qualities of a leader.
“The man was asked to grant an interview and he can’t speak in public. I don’t know what is so special about him that anybody would want him to be a parliamentarian on their ticket,” she noted.
“You can’t compare the personality of Gyakye Quayson and Charles Opoku,” Gabriella Tetteh exclaimed.
Charles Opoku wanted to be NDC parliamentary candidate in the Assin North by-election
— Gabriella Tetteh disclosed on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV on Monday, July 3, 2023.#BossPlayer pic.twitter.com/pVy3lar0pG
— Bernard Ralph Adams (@theladralph) July 3, 2023
After the Tuesday, June 27, 2023, Assin North by-election, Mr. James Gyakye Quayson won with 17,245 votes, representing 57.56 percent of the total votes cast, defeating Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG).
Charles Opoku received 12,630 votes, accounting for 42.15 percent of the votes cast in the highly contested by-election, while the LPG’s Bernice Enyonam Sefenu received only 87 votes (0.29%).
Gyakye Quayson, who received 17,498 votes in the 2020 election, was booted out of Parliament for possessing dual citizenship prior to filing his nomination documents.
The Assin North seat was declared vacant after the Supreme Court decided on May 17 that Gyakye Quayson’s name be removed from Parliament’s records.
Meanwhile, Mr Quayson is facing charges of forgery and perjury in relation to certain alleged offences in the run-up to the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election.
He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of forgery of passport or travel certificate, knowingly making a false statutory declaration, perjury, and false declaration for office.
It is the case of the prosecution that Mr. Quayson allegedly made a false statement to the Passport Office that he did not hold a passport to another country when he applied for a Ghanaian Passport.
Also, the prosecution has accused Mr. Quayson of making a false declaration to the Electoral Commission (EC) to the effect that he did not owe any allegiance to a foreign country when he filed to contest as a candidate for the Assin North seat.
