KMA's presiding member involved in street-fight

The presiding member of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Nana Awua Nsia, who is alleged to have battered his opponent in the upcoming District Assembly elections is being sought by the Asawasi Police in Kumasi.

But, that is even not the only brawl to mar the local elections. In another development, a campaign platform mounted for contestants for the Dadiesoaba electoral area ended abruptly when a member of the public accused a candidate of being ?a wee smoker.? This resulted in a free for all fight compelling the officials of the Electoral Commission to cancel the programme. The two contestants above are not known to be part of the fracas.

On the alleged assault by the Presiding Member, eyewitnesses say the strongly-built Nana Awuah Nsiah, who is in early fifties, around 8.00 pm on Monday, punched the lighter 38-year old Michael Adusei Bonsu, twice in the face before passers-by and friends of the victim came to his aid.

Adusei Bonsu, a Senior Technician Engineer at the Agriculture Engineer Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who is contesting the Dadiesoaba electoral area seat, where Nana Awua Nsiah is the incumbent and is seeking re-election, told The Statesman's reporter on Thursday that although the jabs have given him a migraine it has not cowed him from contesting in the elections.

The paper?s investigation has revealed that Nana Awua Nsiah met the victim who was driving an Opel Cadet car in the late hours of Monday 8 July near the Dan's Photo Studio at Asafo and invited him for a discussion.

The victim, Adusei-Bonsu, who was with two others in his car, got out to listen to Nana Awua Nsiah who requested to speak to him outside of the car. It was then that the Presiding Member allegedly accused him of being behind a publication in The Statesman on clashes between the Presiding Member and the Dadieasoaba Abrotia community over some stores being put up at a site meant for a toilet facility.

The Presiding Member further accused Adusei-Bonsu of using the publication to campaign against him in his house-to-house rounds. Adusei-Bonsu at this time is said to have replied, "You can write a rejoinder to The Statement if you like or sue them." Eyewitness say that it was at this time that his opponent started raining blows on him, without receiving a reply.

It took the intervention of other people who had been attracted by the incident before Adusei-Bonsu could free himself and refuge in a nearby house, the paper gathered. The Presiding Member who was in the company of one Boakye, further rained insults on Adusei-Bonsu accusing him of belonging to a political party, against the rules of Assembly members, an allegation which Adusei-Bonsu denies.

Meanwhile, Adusei-Bonsu has lodged a complaint with the Asokwa police who issued him with a medical form to be taken to the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.