Former Klottey Korle Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Valentino Nii Noi Nortey has been told to pen down an application letter to the leadership of the party if he seeks to re-join the party.
Nii Noi Nortey asked for clemency from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, having defied him to go independent during the 2016 elections.
Nii Noi won the initial primaries to contest the parliamentary seat on the ticket of the then opposition NPP, but his main contender Philip Addison challenged the integrity of the internal poll in court and won.
Addison won the rerun and represented the party in the general elections, but lost to Zanetor Rawlings. An aggrieved Nii Noi contested the seat as an independent candidate, despite persistent behind the scenes calls on him to drop that decision.
He on Wednesday May 3, 2017, Nii Noi confessed that he regrets his decision and must be forgiven.
“It hasn’t been easy… I will like to use this opportunity to forgive anybody who opposed me and also anyone who I might have offended,” the young politician opined. “When you are young you get people telling you to do all manner of things. However, I want to use this opportunity to ask for forgiveness and especially my political godfather – former President J.A Kufuor. He even called me to rescind my decision [to go independent] but there were a lot of circumstances on the ground which didn’t allow that.”
He stressed: “I want to use this opportunity to apologise to the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because he also called me to rescind my decision and I didn’t listen. I must say it wasn’t an issue of disobedience, but there was a lot of politics on the ground which I can’t go into.
“Yes, I regret going independent. The circumstances which led to that was unfortunate. In life sometimes you have to make some tough decisions. I’m really sorry to the big men I failed to heed their advice.
“I’m apologizing to these big men – Nana Addo, Kufuor, Bawumia – including Anthony Karbo, Mustapha Hamid for all my actions.”
This apology has been received with mixed feelings with the acting General Secretary of the NPP asking him to re-apply to be a member of the party he deserted in the heat of the 2016 campaign.
John Boadu speaking on Adom FM’s Midday News on Friday said the prescription he was offering is in line with the dictates of the party’s constitution.
“The laws of the party states that if you are a member and decide to go independent, you forfeit your membership and hence if he (Nii Noi) seeks to return to the NPP, he has to reapply so we would decide whether to accept him back or not…,” he said.
The application letter, he said must state reasons why he, Nii Nortey, would want to return to the fold of the NPP.
The executives of the party, John Boadu added would meet over the application and consider its merits or otherwise taking into consideration the feedback they would have from the Klottey Korle constituency.
“He has to re-apply and state the reasons for the return so we would meet over it and consider the reasons. We would analyse the contents and take feedback from the base of the party as well because he left the party with people who might have also dragged the name of the party into the mud in the process…,” he stated.
The process, he said is part of the means of instilling discipline in the party.
“Discipline is key, when he was leaving, I spoke at length with him when the case was pending but he refused to heed my advice so he should come forward with the application and we would sit and consider the contents,” John Boadu said.