Goons Abduct NPP Constituency Chairman

A top New Patriotic Party (NPP) functionary escaped death by the skin of his teeth late last Thursday night when he was abducted from his Coco Beach residence at Nungua around 9.30 pm by goons in a saloon car and a pick-up, blindfolded and driven away.

Narrating his story to ‘The Chronicle’, Mr. Robert Bortei Bissinan, Krowor (Nungua) constituency chairman stated that, on the night in question, he was together with his wife and a couple of friends when two vehicles stormed his house with the occupants, (some in police and military uniforms and the others in plain clothes) shouting his name and eventually bundling him into a white Nissan Double Cabin pick-up.

His abductors carried no warrant, he said; they only used brute force, and he had to take it cool and hope that he would not die.

From that point, they drove into the house of a patron of the party in Nungua, whom he identified only as Ellis. “They were in Ellis’ house for about 15 minutes, and on their return, I heard them say that they did not meet Ellis in the house but that they had mercilessly beaten up his wife and children,” Bissinan recalled.

They then drove towards the Spintex Road, and when they noticed that he was looking round to check where he was being driven to, two of the abductors who had sandwiched him in the pickup, pummeled and blindfolded him to prevent him from locating his geographical bearings.

As they sped along the route, he noted that, they would occasionally call a colleague on a walkie-talkie and brief him or exchange messages. They stopped again and some of the men went out.

They came back later gloating: “we did not meet Kakai but we saw the wife and children and we have beaten them well, well.” Kakai is also a patron of the party.

Bissinan said as it was getting to midnight and hope was giving way to desperation and grim resignation, the assailants strangely requested him to show them a short route to the Gondar Barracks.

“At that point, I knew the men were not professional killers and could not even be soldiers and policemen.” He decided to take his chance and eventually diverted them towards the Manet Court Estates and “as we inched towards civilization, one of the assailants called the other chap co-ordinating the project from the other end and informed him of our location.”

It was at that point that the “co-ordinator” noted that there could be trouble for his buddies as police patrol teams frequently plied the Manet Court area, the smart politician recalled.

When the assailants realized that he was deceiving them, they took a desperate decision. “My friend, we have to finish you before we are exposed. You say you know how to organise; organise your way out of your condition now! When you die and you come back, don’t learn any other thing in the world but organising,” one ‘soldier` yelled at him.

Shortly before then, Bissinan said, he had managed to steal a glance at the number of the other car, a Toyota Corolla (GT 6465 Q) by pushing the cloth used to blindfold him upwards. “They quickly drove to a nearby bush and ordered me to come down. When I hesitated, they pushed me violently out of the vehicle”.

“Finish him!” a voice from behind the vehicle commanded.

Probably for fear that the noise from the shot would cause a stir in the area and create problems for them, they began using the butt of the rifle to brutalise me on the head.

“When I could no longer bear the pain, I feigned a deathly gasp”, he told the paper. “Kwasia (fool), he is dead. Let’s leave quickly!” He heard them say.

When he was sure they were gone, he painfully put himself together and fumbled his way towards the Lion Aluminium Factory where a call was put through to one of his friends who was around when he was abducted. He said they took his diary from his pocket, together with an undisclosed amount of money, before the attempt to kill him.

Bissinan suffered bloodshot eyes, lacerations on his lower lips, along the left forearm and on the left skin. Miraculously, he didn’t suffer any serious head injuries.

Police are investigating the case as The Chronicle launches its own investigations.

Plain-speaking Bissinan says he has no reason to suspect any foul play from the camp of the NDC. - Chronicle