Minister Fights Banku Seller

The beleaguered Deputy Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, has dragged the Minister of Communications Haruna Iddrisu and Presidential Spokesperson John Jinapor into the shameful fracas that occurred in Tamale last Sunday, prior to President John Mahama’s visit to the area.

Hajia Boya, now nicknamed “De La Hoya” and “No. 10” for her alleged quarrelsome behavior and garnering only 10 votes in the constituency primaries, allegedly attacked 54-year-old Rahinatu Zakaria alias Mma Kande, a banku seller in Tamale, on Sunday afternoon.


The victim is currently on admission at the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Hospital in Tamale, nursing various degrees of injury, following the severe beatings she allegedly received from the minister and her goons.


A visit to Mma Kande at the hospital by DAILY GUIDE saw her with one eye virtually shut and bruises on her face and neck.


Abubakri Sadik, son of the victim, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, disclosed that before her appointment as Deputy Minister, Mma Kande was a close pal of Boya.


But the minister abandoned them only to resurface three years later, soliciting their mandate after the Sagnarigu constituency was created, to be made the party’s parliamentary candidate.


Kande and her allies, in sharp contrast to the demands of the deputy minister, voted for another female candidate, culminating in her painful defeat last week.


Black-Eye

The Deputy Women and Children’s Affairs minister, according to the victim, last Friday, in the company of her police bodyguard, stormed Mma Kande’s food joint, and allegedly rained several abusive words on her and left upon persuasion from the guard.


This did not go down well with the food vendor, but she was advised by her peers to exercise some restraint and allow peace to prevail.


The minister was said to have repeated the action on Sunday and left for a salon afterwards.


Angry Mma Kande trailed her to the hairdressing salon for a verbal showdown, but Boya’s personal aide shoved her away and started beating her up despite pleas from onlookers to spare Kande who at this point was said to be bleeding.


The incident immediately attracted other residents who would have lynched the minister, but for the timely intervention of the Metropolitan Police Commander and the Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, who calmed down the tensed party crowd.


In spite of this intervention, the residents were bent on unleashing their anger on the deputy minister, whom they accused of being arrogant and quarrelsome, prompting more armed men to be deployed to Nyohani.


She was later saved from the hostile crowd and taken to the police station where she lodged an official complaint moments after the victim was attended to by the police and issued with a medical form.

Accusations


The Deputy Minister however accused the Communications Minister of being the brain behind her predicament, alleging that Haruna Iddrisu was also working clandestinely to scuttle Mahama’s presidency, because Haruna Iddrisu was harbouring presidential ambitions.


“It is Haruna Iddrisu who mobilized them to come and attack me and I don’t know for what. Haruna has been doing that every time he organizes people to beat people when he doesn’t agree with you on anything,” she told Citi FM.


She further alleged that “he wants to have control over so many constituencies and I am not hurt that I lost the primaries, but it is paining him. He mobilized the people to come and attack me and I know all of them, they are his boys and he was there himself. He was there.


He came with the boys”.


“The woman just came to the salon, held my dress and tore it and I didn’t have a security man with me. But one of the boys I was moving with held the woman and pushed her so she hit her face on the ground,” Boya said.


Yesterday, Hajia Boya also told Accra based Peace FM that Haruna masterminded the attack on her.

Hajia Boya further accused John Jinapor of the Office of the President as well as Baffoe Bonnie, Advisor to President Mahama, of attacking and slapping her; an incident she was said to have reported to the Chief of Staff, although no action had since been taken on the matter.


She said Jinapor slapped her at the Kotoka International Airport in May upon their arrival from Tamale for an official function, where she had called the two presidential aides ‘useless’.


But Mr. Jinapor, when contacted, denied the allegations through a text message saying, “My response is simple. I have never fought with any man, how much more beat a woman. If she has her problems, I would not be used by her as a scapegoat.”


Apology


On his part, Haruna Iddrisu denied all the accusations levelled against him, describing them as false and unfounded.


He demanded an unqualified apology from the Deputy Minister for making such allegations against him and also called on the Inspector General of Police Paul Tawiah Quaye to investigate the matter.


“These wicked and malicious lies by Hajia Boya will not stand. I want the IGP to institute an investigation into this matter and to make the findings of their investigations public…my character, reputation, personality will not be assaulted and mangled as is being done by Boya.”

However, Boya insisted most of her colleagues in government were scheming to make her very unpopular to pave the way for her dismissal, thereby linking her to several nasty incidents including her open confrontations with Dr. Louisa Hanna Bissiw, a Deputy Minister of Works and Housing and her attack on Deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia.


She was alleged to have said the Deputy Chief of staff was noted for doling out huge sums of money to sections of NDC youth each time he was in the region, stating it was making the work of Northern ministers and MPs very difficult.


A recent DAILY GUIDE report said she caused a stir at the Tamale airport after refusing to subject herself to security checks as part of departure formalities while on her way to Accra, raising concerns about her conduct and open outbursts.


At the time, she caused a rejoinder to be written from the vice-president’s office denying the report.


Some key persons in government and leading party functionaries who spoke to DAILY GUIDE on anonymity demanded that the minister be fired as her conduct was uncharacteristic of a minister of state.