Nii Ayikoi Otoo, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, has withdrawn from the race to become the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He had earlier pledged to whip up the attention of ministers and government appointees to the needs of the party for them to be provided, if he won the race.
Besides, three other prospective aspirants for the positions of National Organiser, National Women’s Organiser and National Youth Organiser, that is, Dr Kwame Afriyie, Akosua Serwaa Bonsu and Tumfuo Klinsman Karikari Mensah respectively had also rescinded their decisions to contest.
The National Executive aspirants will be battling it out on July 16, to assume management roles in the party for the 2024 elections.
Speaking ahead of the NPP’s National Delegates Conference to be held on July 16, Chairman of the NPP’s Election Committee, Peter Mac Manu, announced that MrOtoo has communicated his decision to abandon the contest in a letter on July 4, 2022 but did not assign reasons.
According to him, “as a result of the due diligence of the National Election Committee, no appeals against the nominations of any prospective aspirants were recorded by the National Appeals Committee and after an extensive vetting exercise in June, the party released list of candidates who are deemed qualified to contest at the National Delegates Conference.
“Per the list, eight persons were to contest for the Chairman position, thus, with Nii Otoo’s withdrawal, the number of aspirants has reduced to seven,” Mr Mac Manu indicated.