NDC chairman escapes attack

Chronicle -- The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman, Alhaji Collins Dauda, narrowly escaped death from a mob alleged to be New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters, supposedly hired by Mr. Thomas Broni, Deputy Interior Minister.

Dauda, also Parliamentary Candidate for the Asutifi South Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, however had his new Tata Pick-up with registration number GE 1680 V, recently supplied by the Electoral Commission, damaged. A member of the NDC, one Sulemana Iddrisu sustained cutlass wounds at the back of his head from the angry NPP mob.

Thomas Broni is contesting the Asutifi constituency seat on the NPP ticket alongside Collins Dauda of the NDC.

The Chronicle sources, confirmed by the Goaso Police revealed that last Saturday, 20th of January, Alhaji Dauda was traveling to Nkaseim to pick his constituency chairman, Mr. Yaw Okyere to attend a funeral at Nkrankrom, near Nkaseim.

It revealed that about a few meters to the Nkaseim chief?s palace, Alhaji Dauda, sensing danger on seeing the mob, ordered his driver to stop immediately.

According to the source, the mob blocked the main road with benches to prevent Dauda from traveling into the town.

The NDC regional chairman, according to our source, then alighted from the car and ran into a nearby bush to hide himself so as to escape the wrath of the NPP youth.

When the angry youth reached the vehicle and realized that the man they were looking for was not inside, one of them, as revealed to the paper, took a pestle, hit the back screen of the pick-up and the tail light, smashing everything.

The Chronicle information revealed that the angry mob, after smashing the screens of the pick-up, followed up to the funeral grounds at Nkrankrom, fully armed to attack the NDC parliamentary candidate, but fortunately for him, he did not attend the funeral, on account of the incident.

It was at the funeral grounds at Nkrankrom that Sulemana Iddrisu was attacked with a cutlass. Iddrisu was later admitted at the St. Elizabeth Hospital at Hwediem. At the same funeral grounds, it was announced to the general public that Alhaji Dauda was attacked, hence his inability to attend the funeral, but the NPP supporters did not take kindly to the announcement.

When contacted, the NDC chairman confirmed the story and said earlier, he had had warning signals from the NPP youth at Nkaseim, the hometown of his political rival, Thomas Broni, that whenever he dared to enter the town, he would be lynched.

He, therefore, found it difficult to campaign in the town.

At the time of filing this story, the police was yet to apprehend the culprits behind the incidents.

When The Chronicle reached the Deputy Minister for Interior, Thomas Broni, for his comment, he refused to speak to the paper and switched off his mobile phone when the reporter told him he was calling from The Chronicle.

Subsequent calls to reach him proved futile.