The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has again suspended one of its outspoken Members, Stephen Atubiga few hours after sacking Benard Allotey Jacobs, the Central Regional Chairman of the party.
The suspension of Mr Atubiga came to effect after the party’s Functional Executive Committee’s (FEC) meeting on Thursday 18th of March,2021, reviewing its decision on the his conduct pursuant to the apologies and pledges he made to be of good behavior for a period of six months following his meeting with FEC on the 24th February, 2021.
In a statement addressed to Mr. Atubiga, signed and issued by the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and sighted by A1radioonline.com, it said, “You would recall that FEC summoned you to a meeting in respect of a news item attributed to you [Stephen Atubiga] and published on Ghanaweb on Saturday, 13th February 2021 captioned “Only useless politicians retire poor.”
The statement continued to say that, “In the said publication, you [Stephen Atubiga] made disparaging and unfounded comments about key senior party members including Hon Joshua Alabi.”
According to the party, Mr. Atubiga admitted all the ‘disparaging and unfounded comments’ claims and apologize never to do or say anything that would bring the good name of the party into disrepute and this attestation was made in his letter dated 26th February, 2021 after meeting with FEC.
The statement said, Mr. Atubiga also agreed to write officially on his Facebook wall retracting his earlier writings and to write officially to Mr. Alabi, apologizing personally to him and to refrain from such defamatory comments in the future.
The statement however said that, Mr. Atubiga failed to write the letter of apology to Mr. Alabi as he earlier promised FEC. The statement said, he breached his own promises by denigrating the party and individuals in the party, citing publications attributed to Mr Atubiga on social media on 8th, 12th and 14th of March 2021 among others describing them as ‘denigrating’.
At the end of FECs deliberations, it said, “With immediate effect, your [Stephen Atubiga] membership of the NDC is suspended, that the matter be referred to the party’s Disciplinary Committee for further action.”, citing article 48(1), 48(6), 48(8 a and b) of the party’s Constitution.
The party therefore asked Me. Atubiga to cooperate with the Disciplinary Committee for an expeditious determination of his case.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHZ| James Nana Tsiquaye|Ghana
