Police asked to stop NPP

Sunyani (B/A) Nov. 30, GNA - Sunyani West Constituency branch of National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the Police to restrain the New Patriotic Party (NPP) from creating confusion in the constituency.

The branch stated in a press statement that if the situation was not addressed it might degenerate into violent confrontation between members and supporters of the two parties.

A statement Ishak Twumasi Ankrah, NDC Constituency Chairman signed and copied to the media catalogued "certain wrongs and misconduct perpetrated by the NPP in the constituency".

It alleged that Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister and NPP Parliamentary candidate for constituency, once invited some NDC Party Executives at Nsoatre and warned them should any NDC supporter or sympathizer insult or make any derogatory remarks about him, he would use his "high powers" to deal with the person. The statement said the Regional minister charged: "I have control over all the soldiers and police in the region and I can easily use them to deal with anyone who will step on my toes".

It said a week after the warning, verbal exchanges between an NDC boy and some NPP activists at an NPP rally at Nsoatre led to the untimely death of the boy when he fell trying to escape from the irate on-rushing activists.

On October 9 2008, the Sunyani West NDC campaign team paid a visit to a village called Amanfoso, off the Nsoatre-Berekum road and no sooner had the Parliamentary candidate, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo started delivering his speech than two strong-looking men riding on two motorbikes with registration numbers GV 263 S and GV 292 S emerged from nowhere and started hurling insults at them, the statement said. The NDC statement said the case was reported to the Police at Nsoatre after the programme and after Police investigations it came out that one of the two macho men, Mr. Oppong, was a resident at Nsoatre. "On October 26 this year at about 0700 hours, a boy named Hinneh, who is also an NPP supporter broke a beer bottle and threw it into an NDC group that was returning from a keep-fit exercise.

"The broken bottle injured one person and a report was made to the Police in Sunyani after which the victim was given a Police medical form to enable him to receive treatment at the Regional Hospital in Sunyani. "The incident occurred at Odumase but no arrest has been made yet the attack took place right at the spot where the Police had assigned to the NDC keep fit group to converge for its activity that day", the NDC statement said.

The statement added that on November 18 this year the NPP campaign team led by the parliamentary candidate, Mr Baffour-Awuah, besieged Kwabenakuma around 1000 hours even though according to the party's itinerary served to the Police, the NDC was supposed to be there at 1400 hours.

"The NPP team played music without any speech until 1800 hours. We believe this act is tantamount to intimidation, calculated to prevent the NDC from carrying out its campaign in the Sunyani West Constituency", the statement noted.

It reiterated, "we wish to make it emphatically clear that we have always notified the Police by consistently providing them with the itinerary of the party in five phases, since our campaign commenced about two months ago.

"Our conclusion is that when the Police have not called us to discuss the need to vary our itinerary for the reason of clash of political activities by the various political parties, we deem all our activities to have duly received the approval of the Police and will, therefore, have them carried through to the letter. Any attempt by the NPP or any political party to cow us down so that we cannot carry out our campaign will not be countenanced by the NDC", the statement stressed.

It appealed to all peace-loving people such as the chiefs, the clergy, opinion leaders and institutions like the NGOs, CBOs and election observers to listen to their complaints and prevail upon the Sunyani West NPP to work towards achieving peaceful elections before, during and after the December elections.

Reacting to the allegations, Mr Kwesi Annan-Frimpong, Special Assistant to the Regional Minister and Regional NADMO Co-ordinator, dismissed them as "calculated lies" by the NDC who are "finding reasons for the elections that they are going to lose". He explained, "there might have been some infractions that could have happened at the blind side of Mr Baffour-Awuah, who has the best organised campaign in the country".

Mr Annan-Frimpong said the Regional Minister had never invited any NDC executives to his father's house at Nsoatre as alleged, adding "Baffour Awuah has never threatened anybody physically and did not even go on his campaign trail with his police bodyguard.

"Everywhere the Regional Minister has gone to campaign he has been very peaceful", he said, adding, "Sunyani West seat is a safe one for the NPP, which it has won it since 1996 with overwhelming success and this year's victory is going to be monumental".