Fighting Breaks Out in Berekum NPP

Berekum — Reports reaching The Chronicle indicate that the Berekum Constituency branch of the Opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is 'boiling' as the Member of Parliament for the area, Hon. Kwaku Agyenim Boateng and the Constituency Chairman Kwaku Kankam, have engaged in a battle over who is in charge of the party.

According to the report, the Constituency Chairman and some other executives were physically attacked on Saturday by alleged thugs at Gyinigyini during a meeting with polling station executives and party members. The thugs also attacked the constituency executives on Sunday during a similar meeting with polling station executives and members at Berekum.

When contacted, Mr. Kankam confirmed the attacks, alleging that the thugs included the MP's personal driver and two bodyguards.

Kankam alleged that the MP incited some of the polling station executives against the constituency executives. He further accused the MP of writing a petition to the executives of the party and calling for his removal. The case is pending before the court.

The Constituency chairman continued that because his outfit wanted to organize the polling stations within the Constituency to sensitize them effectively on the new amendments of the party's constitution before the polling station elections, the MP has decided to attack them.

Mr. Kankam stated that the MP has formed an Interim Steering Executive Committee with his cohorts to prepare them take over from the constituency executives.

Hon. Kwaku Agyenim Boateng denied knowledge of any attack on the constituency executives engineered by him, when The Chronicle contacted him for his side of the story. He described the allegations as frivolous because he has no driver and bodyguards as alleged by the chairman.

The MP stated that he once heard of a petition written by some polling station executives against the chairman and some constituency executives, which case later went to court, but as a senior party person, he decided to withdraw the case from court for amicable settlement.

He also denied ever receiving a letter from the Regional Office of the party in Sunyani, inviting him and the constituency executives to resolve the case of forming any steering executive committee made up of his buddies.

Relevant Links West Africa Ghana According to Hon. Agyenim Boateng, he does not support the move of the constituency executives going round to organise meetings with polling stations, because there is a problem which must be resolved firs, before any such meeting could be organized.

He wondered how the executives could organize meetings with the polling station executives who had initially called for their removal from office.

When contacted, the Regional Chairman of the party, Mr. Kwasi Adugyan confirmed the brawl between the MP and Constituency Executives. According to him he had ordered for the suspension of the compilation list of delegates at the various polling stations in the constituency.

He said due to the misunderstandings, the Berekum exercise would be withheld till all polling stations in the region are done before a special taskforce would be instituted to conduct that of Berekum.