NDC member denies firing gun at Botchwey Committee meeting

A member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ayawaso North Constituency, Sumaila Fuseini, aka Chinese, has denied reports that he fired gunshots during the Prof. Kwesi Botchwey fact-finding committee’s hearing at Kawukudi, a suburb of Accra.

A publication by DAILY GUIDE on April 8 suggested that Chinese, believed to be a devotee of Dr. Mustapha Ahmed, former MP of the constituency, allegedly fired gunshots during the committee’s hearing.

But it appears the gunshots were fired by a member of the party from the Ayawaso Central Constituency, who partook in the meeting.

Reports say some members of the party in Ayawaso Central started the confusion when a group accused their parliamentary candidate in the recent election Afum Ani-Agyei, aka Obama, of overseeing the party’s abysmal performance in the constituency.

They claimed Obama used land guards to intimidate party members and created divisions in the party, allegations which were rejected by Obama’s supporters, leading to the confusion.

The reports indicated that the gunshots were fired when the meeting was drawing to a close.

The Chinese later issued a rejoinder to flatly deny the allegations.

According to him, “Though the said publication did not specifically mention my name, all the descriptions and code-name used therein depicts me. It is trite knowledge that I am an ardent devotee of former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso North and former Minister of Youth and Sports, Dr. Mustapha Ahmed.”

“It is also a known fact that within Ayawaso North and adjoining constituencies, and indeed in NDC circles, many call me by my alias, Chinese, instead of my real name Sumaila Fuseini,” it said.

“Against the background of this, and the fact I was at the Prof. Kwesi Botchwey meeting at Kawukudi on Wednesday, April 5, 2017, it was obvious that the attributions in your publication could not be referring to any other person other than me.”

“I want to state for the record that that publication and its related attributions to me are pure fabrications and figment of imagination of the writer and the newspaper. I never took a gun to the meeting not to talk of firing it,” it said.

Members of two constituencies- Ayawaso East and Ayawaso West Wugon- also participated in the meeting of the committee, which is investigating why the NDC suffered humiliating defeat in the 2016 elections.