DCE slaps NPP MP-aspirant

The District Chief Executive for Krachi-East, Hon. Michael Gyato, is reported to have almost succeeded in turning the New Patriotic Party's headquarters at Asylum Down, in the Greater Accra Region, into a boxing arena, when he furiously directed his anger towards a parliamentary aspirant, who was disqualified by the party hierarchy for taking the party to court in 2005.

The Chronicle said it gathered that the DCE pounced on the aspirant, Mr. Collins Castro Ahenkora, held his neck and slapped him on his right cheek.

“The slapping incident by the DCE took place at about 9.30pm last Thursday when the national executives of the party summoned 7 constituencies with their executives from the Volta Region including their parliamentary aspirants to iron out some differences and to tell some disqualified aspirants to step down.

“It took the timely intervention of some constituency executives present to prevent the situation from escalating further”, the paper reported on Tuesday.

According to the paper, Mr. Andy Lartey, constituency chairman for North-Dayi, who was present at the scene confirmed the story and stated that it was wrong for the DCE to slap a party member.

Andy Lartey told the paper he would like to follow the matter up to the national chairman, Mr. Peter Mac Manu to ensure that it was resolved in the interest of the party.

Mr. Ahenkora, the victim, also confirmed the story of the assault on him.

He told the paper that on the day of the incident, when he was called up and was informed that he was disqualified from contesting the parliamentary primaries, he descended from the upstairs and was narrating what transpired between him and the party leadership to party members present and out of the blue the DCE pounced on him and slapped him. “I was talking to the party members that all the troubles in our area were created by the DCE, when all of a sudden the DCE descended from the upstairs and held my neck and slapped me. He warned me to be careful or else he would deal with me", Ahenkorah alleged.

Asked whether he had reported the matter to the party executives or the police, Mr. Ahenkora said he was advised to talk to the party leadership before taking any action and that he was yet to take a final decision on the matter.

He maintained that all the troubles in the Krachi East constituency were attributable to the District Chief Executive.

In a sharp rebuttal the DCE, Gyato, denied ever slapping the disqualified aspirant.

He said it was rather the victim who cast insinuations at him. "I have told him that the fact that I am a DCE does not warrant him to insult me just like that. He cannot insult me but I did not slap him," he said.

According to the DCE, at the meeting, some party members were making noise and that the leadership of the party thought that the noise might be that the party members were hungry because they had waited for so many hours.

He said the directive from the party was to cool down tempers and that the party was preparing to take care of the food.

"When I was descending he was just insulting me. He said this is a foolish man who calls himself a DCE so I told him to be very careful since it is not good for him to do that.

“My brother, I can tell you that it was rather Ahenkora who said I was lucky and that if not because of something he would have slapped me but if he says I slapped him, then it is unfortunate."

Meanwhile The Chronicle said it gathered that immediately the party disqualified Mr. Ahenkora who was supported by almost eight executives of the constituency, all the executives except the chairman held a meeting and was brainstorming to either take the party to court for not listening to them.

They were of the view that the disqualification of Ahenkora and another candidate leaving only the Presiding Member to contest amounted to an imposition of candidate on them.