Cracks in Ashanti NDC

Angry looking, stoutly built National Democratic Congress (NDC) members Monday morning chased away some party executives from the Ashanti regional office, after which they sealed off the facility with padlocks.

The peeved NDC faithful, numbering about 22, who go by the name ‘Coalition of NDC Foot Soldiers and Activists in Kumasi,’ stormed the office at Amakom around 11:00 am, waving red flags and chanting war songs to show their fury.

Their presence at the place disrupted work for close to three hours, after which the visibly shaken regional executives, who had recoiled into their shells, regrouped to break the padlocks so as to gain access into the office.

The coalition is made up of groups in the Zongo communities such as, Bashaka Movement, Majority Motor Riders, Taskforce One, Zongo for Mahama and Gaskia Club, which campaigned vigorously for the NDC in the run-up to the 2012 general elections.

The group, led by Ben Abdellah (secretary), in an interview, threatened to demonstrate against Yaw Obimpeh, the Ashanti Regional NDC Chairman, “for collapsing the party.”

The coalition, which had slated March 9, 2015 for a demonstration against the regional chairman, could not wait for the date and unexpectedly invaded the party’s regional office to disrupt activities.

The NDC foot soldiers, in a frightening manner, ordered one Isham said to be the deputy organiser in the region, who was in a meeting with some people during the invasion, to leave the office peacefully for them to lock up the place.

Ben Abdellah told DAILY GUIDE that they decided to lock up the office to display to the whole world and President Mahama in particular that the NDC was on the brink of collapse in the region and that it was not necessary for the party’s office to be opened.

He alleged that Yaw Obimpeh and some of the Ashanti regional executives are fabulously rich so they do not care whether the NDC wins or loses power in 2016.

According to Abdellah, information he was privy to indicated that the padlocks that they used to lock the office were later destroyed by the regional executives around 2pm, by which time the members of the coalition had already left the place.

He said their intended demonstration against Yaw Obimpeh on March 9 would still come off, stressing that they would not rest until he (Obimpeh) stopped his divide-and-rule tactics.