We will retaliate if NPP attacks continue - NDC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has indicated that supporters of the party will be forced to react if attacks on them are not curtailed by the security agencies.

“The attacks on our supporters...should nothing continue to be done by the president-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo, and the NPP leadership to immediately put a stop to the unprovoked and uncivilised physical attacks on our supporters, we the NDC youth will not fold our arms while our people are attacked violently.

We shall henceforth reply in equal measure whenever we are attacked by NPP supporters. A tooth for a tooth, an arm for an arm,” NDC National Youth Organiser Sidi Abubakar stated at a press conference in Accra on Monday, December 12.

Some persons affiliated to the party took over the administration of the recently constructed interchange at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in the wake of the party’s victory in the 2016 polls. The supporters seized the keys to the offices for the staff and management of the €74million interchange on Saturday.

There were similar reports of NPP supporters arbitrarily taking over public installations across the country, reminiscent of scenes in the aftermath of the 2008 polls won by the NDC, which witnessed some of the triumphant party’s supporters taking over the running of public toilets, toll booths, community centres, among other structures.

In Kumasi on Saturday December 10, few hours after Nana Akufo-Addo’s confirmation as winner of the 2016 election, some party faithful stormed some public toilets manned by staff of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), seized the keys to the facilities, assaulting some persons in the process.

The toll booths located at the Ashaiman end of the Accra-Tema motorway were seized and taken over by well-built men in the early hours of Monday, December 12.

The party leadership has condemned the action of the supporters describing it as “shameful” as they called on the police to deal with the culprits.

But the NDC Youth Organiser insists that “our supporters throughout the country are subjected to daily and nightly violent attacks unleashed by lawless thugs of the NPP whose leadership are directly sponsoring and encouraging the violence perpetuated on law-abiding Ghanaians. At this point, we the leadership cannot guarantee that our people will continue to stand by without defending themselves”.

According to him, “the NDC is able and very capable of causing lots of chaos and confusion if the NPP continues to attack our members. We are also calling on the Ghanaian media that also supported the rigging of the elections to openly condemn what the NPP thugs are doing.”