One elderly man, believed to be in his early 80s, has been confirmed dead with several supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said to have been seriously injured through separate road crashes that greeted the arrival of the party’s flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in the Upper East region.
The tragedies struck just a few minutes apart after the party’s young men, in stormy preparations for Akufo-Addo’s coming Friday evening, poured out in their numbers onto the busy highways in Bolgatanga, the regional capital.
Proudly dressed in Nana-branded T-shirts, they displayed with motorcycles everywhere in an acrobatic manner.
The deceased, whose name is yet unknown, was only a pedestrian using a sidewalk towards his house when an NPP-shirted young man, maneuvering a motorcycle at a ‘possessed speed’ past articulated trucks veered off the Bolgatanga-Navrongo Highway and crashed him against concrete structures. Doctors at the Upper East Regional Hospital told Starr News the old man was brought to the facility unconscious and died a few minutes later.
“He was brought in unconscious and he died. The motorist has a fracture. Others (accident victims) came in the evening. I don’t know the exact number of those injured, but they were many. They are in the ward,” a doctor at the hospital, who did not want his name mentioned, told Starr News.
Party “unaware” of life lost
When contacted, the NPP’s Upper East Regional Director of Communications, Edmund Awuni, recounted what he saw at one of the accident scenes. He, however, claimed the party was not aware a life was lost.
“I had an accident the night before his (Akufo-Addo’s) arrival. So, that very day, during the evening, I was just struggling to walk. I was there at Winkogo, making calls to radio stations. So, when I finished and the convoy left and I was coming, I came and met the accident. But they [said] there was another accident before that one. I, then, organised that motorbike, went and parked it after they had taken the injured to the hospital,” Mr. Awuni narrated.
He added with a tone of frustration: “And I called the regional executives. I told my colleagues. I told Nasara Coordinator. I told the Secretary. And if you are not showing any interest, I don’t know. When it comes to power, they say that they are the people. And when you tell them this is the situation, they don’t want to do. I’m not aware that someone passed on. And when they see things like this, they won’t even answer people’s calls. I called Organiser; he didn’t answer. He just came and passed.”
The party’s campaign in the region has proceeded from one constituency to another and has not come to a halt yet for a moment because of the tragedies. The said accident victims, who hitherto were able-bodied enthusiasts, are still swathed in bandages, no longer ‘possessed’ and 'deaf to caution'.
NPP will take every Ghanaian to school- Akufo-Addo
Nana Akufo-Addo has commenced his tour of the region with a promise to ensure that every child in Ghana is enrolled in school and to give a new lease of life to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
“When we are developing our economy, we are also going to develop our educational [system] because the two go hand in hand. We are going to make sure that every young Ghanaian has the opportunity to go to school right after senior high school level. And we are going to make it possible for everybody to have access to senior high school education.
“Where I stand on free senior high school, that policy would be the policy of the next NPP government to make it possible for everybody to go to school. In the same way, we are coming to rehabilitate the National Health Insurance Scheme. It was Kufuor’s great achievement for Ghana and it is gone down the drain. We are coming to revive it, strengthen it and make it work for everybody,” the presidential candidate said during a rally at Paga, Sunday.
A similar rally was held the same day at Pelungu in the Nabdam Constituency where he paid courtesy calls on the Paramount Chief of Sakote who doubles as President of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, Naba Sigri Bewong, and the Paramount Chief of Nangodi, Naba Kosom Yelzoya Asaga II.
Ghana’s resources in wrong hands
The flagbearer has also painted a picture of Ghana as a country where resources abound but are being poorly managed with the masses living in needless misery as a result.
“Our country, our country is a rich country. We have resources. We have people. And if we manage them well, if those who are in charge of our money don’t put the money in their own pockets but would use it to work for the welfare of the Ghanaian people, everything would work for us in our country.
“And I want to give you that assurance that an Akufo-Addo government is going to work in the interest of the people of Ghana not in the interest of our pockets,” he affirmed as the crowd roared with joy.
In his company are his running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, former Trade Minister, Alan Kyeremanten and the National Women Organiser, Otiko Afisah Djaba, among other party’s big shots.
Copyright © 1994 - 2024 GhanaWeb. All rights reserved.
