Tension at Bantama NPP office as chairman accuses Asenso-Boakye of political machinations; police intervene

Chaos broke out at the Bantama constituency office of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Monday, June 22, as rival factions clashed over allegations of massive manipulation of the party's electoral album.

The confrontations, characterised by hostile verbal exchanges and insults, nearly turned violent but for the timely intervention of personnel from the Suntreso Police Command.

Following the containment of the disturbance, the police invited the Bantama Constituency Chairman, Fiifi Mensah, and the First Vice Chairman, Kingsley Attah, popularly known as Wofa Attah, to assist with investigations.

Speaking to the press after his engagement with the police, Mr. Fiifi Mensah pointed fingers directly at the Member of Parliament for Bantama, Francis Asenso-Boakye.

The chairman accused the lawmaker of unilaterally assembling a team to manipulate the electoral album to favour his preferred candidates in the upcoming constituency-level elections.

According to Mr. Mensah, the peaceful atmosphere within the constituency was shattered when it emerged that a significant number of loyal, long-serving delegates had been deleted from the register without any justifiable cause.

"We will not allow anyone to determine who should remain in the album based on personal affiliations. The electoral album belongs to the entire party, not a select group of people," Chairman Fiifi explained.

The chairman further claimed that delegates who had faithfully served the party for 12 to 16 years were systematically targeted and stripped of their voting rights simply because they were suspected of supporting his administration.

Chairman Fiifi expressed disbelief at being shut out of the compilation process of the album despite his constitutional role as constituency chairman.

He alleged a glaring case of double standards, explaining that while other constituency executives, including the first vice chairman, the youth organiser, and some polling station executives, were allowed to register dozens of new delegates, his own list of 19 proposed delegates was flatly rejected on suspicion of being his loyalists.

This development, he noted, completely violated an earlier consensus reached by the party's leadership that no existing delegates would be removed from the register ahead of the elections.

"If the elections are free, fair, and peaceful, whoever wins deserves the victory. I will campaign, and if I lose, I will accept the outcome honourably. But we will not accept attempts to manipulate the system to satisfy someone's selfish interests," Chairman Fiifi warned.

In a drastic move to halt further alteration of the voter register, Chairman Fiifi Mensah revealed that he locked up the room in the constituency office that houses all copies of the electoral album until the grievances were addressed. He, however, denied allegations that he had locked up the entire office.

"I am the constituency chairman, and I am supposed to supervise the process. When I realised there were too many irregularities, I took custody of the albums because I wanted the issues resolved peacefully before the process continues," he explained.

Mensah noted that he had formally briefed the NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman on the situation, who advised him to submit an official petition to the appropriate national party organs for a peaceful resolution.