NPP primaries marred by fighting

Pusiga (UE/R), Sept. 10 GNA - Fierce fighting ensued between two factions of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Pusiga when the party assembled its electoral college to choose a parliamentary candidate for the Pusiga-Polimakom constituency at the weekend.

The rioters had engaged in stone throwing for more than twenty minutes, disrupting the electoral process, in spite of warning-shots from police personnel forewarning them to stop. They were adamant and continued hitting the roof of the only basic school in the Pusiga Township, which housed the delegates until the police adopted a strategy of identifying and warning individuals.

The regional executive members of the party who had gone to conduct the election had to call the Police Regional Command for re-enforcement to beef up the security, but by the time the re-enforcement arrived the area had turned calm.

An inside-source from the party named one Abdul Rahaman Sumaila as the man behind the violence.

According to the source the strong suspicion against Mr Sumaila stemmed from the fact that after several weeks of opening nomination for interested persons to file, the said Sumaila failed to submit an application.

The source said the regional executive approached Mr Sumaila to convince him to file, but he was adamant and instead gave conditions that he would only file to contest if he would be guaranteed a ministerial portfolio whether he won or lost the parliamentary elections in 2008.

According to the source the executive could not guarantee that and so closed nomination after the expiry date, adding that at the close of filing of nominations, only one person had filed in the person of Mr Mohammed Imoru Sarko.

The source said Mr Sumaila approached the executive several weeks after close of nominations to request that nomination be re-opened to enable him to contest, a condition he indicated was not in the interest of the party.

During the election itself, the 56 member delegates by popular acclamation declared Mr Mohammed Imoru Sarko, 56, as the parliamentary candidate for the party in the forthcoming parliamentary election in 2008, in a ballot supervised by Mr Daniel Kuduma Baware, a Principal Electoral Supervisor.

In an address, Mr Sarko, a United Kingdom based social worker, praised the delegates for the confidence reposed in him and said he had come home for good to contribute his quota to the development of the country.

Mr Sarko said he would focus on building a formidable party front in the constituency by uniting the membership and re-strategizing the campaigns to get more people to the party's fold to win the elections come 2008.

He pledged to use his "influence and connections" to work at ensuring that the people got good drinking water, have access to health facilities and good education as well as improved infrastructure such as good road network to facilitate economic and social growth in the constituency.

The Regional First Vice Chairman of the party, Mr Kizito Kanyonse, urged the delegates and foot soldiers in the constituency to ignore the activities of detractors and called for unity among the rank and file to ensure that the party won the seat.

The constituency chairman, Alhaji Issaka Akoka, said being one of the newly created constituencies in the country, the area needed a number of infrastructure development to catch up with the rest of the country, saying it could only be possible if members buried their differences and worked as a unit for the success of the party. 10 Sept. 07