The leadership of the Tertiary Students Confederacy of the New Patriotic Party (TESCON-NPP) has announced its decision to suspend all activities on the various campuses in the country.
The decision comes on the back of an injunction that barred the 291 presidents of the various TESCON branches from casting their votes in the just ended NPP national delegates’ conference.
According to the party, the injunction was received on Friday evening, and it was late in relaying the message to the group. But the TESCON delegates have refused to accept the excuse.
In a statement jointly released by the 291 TESCON presidents and issued yesterday, the Confederacy observed that there was careful orchestration to exclude TESCON from the event.
“Allocation of stands were made for all delegates, with the exception of TESCON, at Accra Sports Stadium, which clearly indicates that the party did not factor us and never valued us in the planning of the whole event,” the statement said.
Mean treatment
Portions of the statement claimed that the TESCON delegates lodged at Anagkazo in the Eastern Region without allocation of rooms to delegates from the Greater Accra Region.
“They slept outside and others in cars until the next morning for us to come to the stadium and be told an injunction had been placed on TESCON and for that matter we will not be allowed to vote.
“Delegates from the Ashanti Region were given 45 accreditations instead of 174 accreditations for the Presidents, Nasara Coordinators and the Women Commissioners (58 each), and with Greater Accra, 23 accreditations were given instead of 144, and this is similar to all the other regions,” they pointed out in the statement.
According to them, the treatment meted out to them was very mean, and showed that the leadership of the NPP did not have the interest of TESCON at heart.
The aggrieved TESCON leaders claimed party “does not recognise us as the intellectual wing as it has always been professed.”
They could not understand why they could be bussed “from various regions for them to travel miles to the capital city of the country, risking their lives”, just to disenfranchise them.
It is on the back of this development that they have decided to suspend all activities on campus to drum home their displeasure. The suspension is to take place until the petitioner who sought the injunction is revealed.
“Until we see the said injunction, the one who placed the injunction and the reason for the injunction and also give us positive assurance to settle as soon as possible the ambiguity on TESCON Representations during Regional and National Conferences in the next Annual National Delegates Conference, otherwise we will advise ourselves accordingly,” the statement added.