Dear Sir,
Most people immediately attribute the violence in the north to chieftaincy troubles.
The real canker however is the culture of impunity and the open support the NPP regime has given to people in the north- these are the reasons that have emboldened the NPP rogues in Tamale and other parts of Dagbon to do anything and get away with it.
During the 2004 campaigns, one NPP activist named Baba Nkabo shot and killed an innocent 14 year old boy. He was arrested and machine guns were retrieved from him.
What had happened to him since? Nothing! He is a free man today and walking the streets with impunity.
Another NPP activist popularly known as Red, during the registration exercise ahead of the 2004 elections, went round polling stations firing live bullets. He was arrested, charged and remanded in custody. That same day, the deputy regional minister, Charles Bintim and the former NPP regional chairman, late C.O.P forcefully released him from lawful custody.
During the 2004 elections proper, the nation saw this culture of impunity taken to a whole new height when Issa Mobila was tortured and killed in military custody after voluntarily reporting at the police station. Four years on, not even a chicken has been punished for that dastardly crime.
That was the height of the culture of impunity- the naked manifestation of NPP’s brutal and bloody rule.
During the recent registration exercise, a similar thing happened when the NPP organized violent weapon wielding thugs to confiscate registration materials at a centre in the stronghold of the NDC in Tamale. They vandalized the station and destroyed and carried away materials amidst gun firing. These perpetrators are also walking free and even have the audacity of swiftly pointing accusing fingers at their opponents.
That modus operandi was what was used again last Sunday in Tamale and on Monday at Gushiegu.
These are the criminal things being done with the full blessing of the ruling NPP in the north.
Yet in the midst of all this the NPP is claiming that it believes in free, fair and violence free elections.
Lest I forget, there is also this ex soldier called Karimu soldier- an NPP activist who according to authentic reports goes around Tamale fully armed and constantly terrorizing people. Investigations are still going on by some friends of Issa Mobilla to ascertain the veracity of reports that he had in 2004 gone to the police to demand that Issa Mobilla be released from police custody to the military.
Is anyone surprised that these are the root causes of the violence engulfing not just Tamale, but Bawku, Anlo and even Ga mashie in Accra .
Hmmmm, how we are moving forward under the NPP!!!
Alhaji Baba Idriss,
New Town, Accra .
