Two prominent members of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) are demanding that the party's presidential candidate, Dr Paa K wasi Nduom, should be stripped of his position following alleged criminal charges against him by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). While Mr Frankline Adubobi Jantuah of Kumasi is demanding Nduom's immediate removal, Phillip Kwotie of Takoradi has challenged him to go to court to clear his name. But Dr Nduom's camp has dismissed the calls, saying they are of no merit. "There is no merit in the allegations and for God sake, there are no new issues," Communications Director, David Ampofo, told the Times on telephone yesterday. The call for Dr Nduom's withdrawal follows a 1995 SFO investigation into alleged fraud and malpractices in the State Enterprises Commission (SEC) to which the CPP flag bearer was linked as a consultant representing the interest of Deloitte and Touche of the USA. Speaking to the Times here in an exclusive interview, Mr Jantuah, who is a member of the National Executive Committee of the party said Dr Nduom could not stand as the flag bearer until he is able to clear himself of the charges which the SFO had made against him. He said the SFO had already stated in its report that the case was still pending. "If there are criminal charges arising out of any SFO investigation, a docket is prepared for study and advice by the Attorney-General and I am appealing to the CPP to obtain a fiat from the Attorney-General to prosecute Dr Nduom in court." "Unless Dr Nduom is cleared by a competent court of jurisdiction or a judicial review committee of the allegations, he does not qualify to be the presidential candidate," the 83-year-old veteran politician asserted. He told this paper that he first raised the issue of Dr Nduom's eligibility but the party hierarchy did not thoroughly deal with the matter prior to the national delegates congress held in January. He said if the flag bearer does not clear himself, and he wins the election, "thee international community would be laughing at Ghana for having a president who is swimming in a pool of criminal charges". Mr Jantuah said that his call for the removal of the presidential candidate stemmed from a past experience when Imoro Egala was to be made a presidential candidate but he could not convince the committee which looked into how he acquired money to put up a house thus leading to his disqualification for Dr Hilla Limann to take his place. "I am afraid that very soon somebody will take up the report and make a case out of it and the CPP would be working in vain so the earlier the better," he said. He explained that it was not the responsibility of the party to submit the case to court for clearance, but it was its duty to ask Dr Nduom to clear his name because the report criminalises him." Commenting on the alleged SFO report against Dr Nduom in an interview with the Times at Sekondi, Mr Kwofie said many Ghanaians do not know the truth in the allegations and his political opponents would not hesitate to raise the issue in court against him at the last hour which may be a big blow to the forward march of the CPP. He said many Ghanaians want to support the CPP to wrestle power from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) but such people are standing on the fence waiting on Dr Nduom to clear himself of the allegation before they join the party so "the earlier Dr Nduom goes to the court to clear his name and sustains his political image, the better it will be for all supporters and sympathisers of the party". Source: Ghanaian Times