Alabar clash: We’ve been neglected - NPP youth

New Patriotic Party supporters who recently clashed with their counterparts from the National Democratic Congress over ownership of a bus terminal at Alabar, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, say they feel betrayed and neglected by the regional leadership of the NPP.

The group is threatening to boycott subsequent party activities if the NPP leadership fails to state its official position as the battle for ownership of the terminal rages on.

Speaking with Class News’ Ashanti correspondent, Hafiz Tijani, a member of the NPP faction at the terminal, Issahaku Hamdaway, rejected suggestions to share the facility with the NDC members.

According to him, in the last eight years when the NDC was in power, he and his colleagues from the NPP who manned the station were asked to go home and were replaced with persons affiliated to the NDC, but with the return of the NPP to power, they expected that those put in charge of the station during the last administration would have to give way.

Issahaku, who said he spent six days in police cells as a result of the violence that followed the attempted seizure of the station a week ago, wondered if the silence of the NPP leadership on the matter was its payback for the hard work foot soldiers of the party did to bring back the NPP into power.

“During 2008-2012, [there was no] power sharing. Why is it that today there should be power sharing? They want something to happen before they [would say]: ‘You people didn’t try, you should have waited’. No. So we will advise ourselves. If the leaders, the elders, executives of NPP cannot say anything about this…we the youth of NPP will advise ourselves,” he said.

He called on the NPP leadership in the Ashanti Region to show concern on the matter since they represent the interests of the party.

The Ashanti Regional Security Council has since taken over the facility warning both factions to stay away as it takes steps to resolve the issue.

The council took the decision after eight persons sustained machete wounds when members of the two factions clashed.

The situation has reduced patronage at the terminal as passengers traveling to the three regions of the North resort to alternative terminals to their destinations.