Vice-President and NPP Flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has settled the difference between the Ashanti Regional chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Wontumi), and the NPP lawmaker for the Manhyia South constituency and Minister of Energy, Matthew Opoku Prempeh (Napo).
Peaceful negotiations
As part of broad consultations being undertaken by the NPP leader and presidential candidate, before naming his running mate, he met with Wontumi and Nana Nkansah Boadu, on Friday, 28 June 2024.
Chairman Wontumi, after the Friday meeting, traveled to France on the same day, and returned on Sunday 30 June 2024. Dr Bawumia subsequently met with Wontumi, Napo, Nana Nkansah Boadu, and other leading members of the party at his official residence on Sunday, 30 June 2024, to iron out the differences, and to seek a unified front ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections
The two leading members of the NPP in the Ashanti Region had had relationship challenges over several issues in the NPP, and Wontumi was believed to have opposed the proposed nomination of Matthew Opoku Prempeh as the running mate of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for the December 7, 2024 general elections as a result of the issues he had with Napo.
Wontumi had consistently accused Napo of making him spend a lot on his bid for re-election as the NPP Ashanti Regional chairman by sponsoring Odeneho who gave Wontumi a run for his money during the internal party primaries in 2022.
Wontumi and his supporters had felt that the issues he had with the Manhyia Palace recently were engineered by Napo and his constituency chairman, who is popularly known as Tom Tom.
Several attempts had been made by leading party members such as Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, former Majority Leader, and Alexander Afenyo-Markin, MP for Effutu constituency and current Majority Leader, to resolve these matters, but to no avail.