The 62-year-old Majority Leader Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu has warned the governing New Patriotic Party that any attempt by aspiring parliamentary candidates to contest him for the Suame-Kumasi seat would be a suicide move.
Mensah-Bonsu who is perhaps the longest-serving Member of Parliament has held sway on the Suame seat since 1997 and has earned himself the unenviable generic title of a “Mugabe” for his refusal to let go off that seat.
The long-serving parliamentarian in an interview today monitored by Whatsup News claims his services are indispensable, so nobody should contest him.
“The Majority Leader will not be contested because of what he’s doing for the party and for Parliament. The First Deputy Speaker as well and also the Minister for Education. The practical situation is that because of what they are doing they are not able to find space to visit their constituencies often and because of that, you allow somebody to go and scavenge at the backyard of those people. I think it will be most unfortunate and it will be suicidal for the government,” he said.
Last year, he claimed he had received the blessings of President Akufo-Addo for him to remain on that seat till further notice: “I nearly acquiesced but I was prevailed upon by the current President [Akufo-Addo] who advised me not to leave him and the party in the lurch.”
Mensah-Bonsu’s statement is coming on the heels of growing agitations within the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) that a grand scheme was ongoing to prevent certain people-Particularly in the Ashanti Region from picking nomination forms to contest either the presidential primaries or the parliamentary primaries.
Source: whatsupnewsghana.com
