NPP bickering worsens

... Reg. Chairman, others under police probe
... For alleged death threats

Some problems, such as the internal bickering in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Brong Ahafo region, particularly in the Berekum Constituency, are far from settlement. Presently, fronts of the leadership of the party and some of its loyal members are more than divided.

The aggrieved members of the party, who call themselves ?Concerned Members? of NPP, had lodged complaints of threats and assault from the Regional Chairman of the Party, Mr. Kwadwo Yeboah Fordjour, at the Berekum district police station.


On his part, the Regional chairman, in an interview with this paper, also threatened to sack all the members of the concerned group from the party.


?I am just waiting for the constituency Chairman, Mr. Prince Marfo, to return from his trip to sign some documents for me to fire them all,? he said, adding, ?we shall not continue to tolerate the nonsense they are playing in the party; they must go.?


The ?Concerned members?, in an interview with The Chronicle, alleged that, ?the Regional Chairman and some Executive members at both the regional and constituency levels are behaving as if the party was their bona fide property,? asserting, ?we shall resist any attempt to impose their decisions on us.?


Mr. Peter Kyeremeh, and two other members of the group were the ones who had reported the case of assault and threat against the Regional Chairman and two other regional Executives, Kofi Darko, Organizer of the party and Mr. Marfo, assistant Secretary.


Speaking on behalf of the other complainants, Mr. Kyere revealed that the Regional Chairman, accompanied by the two regional executives and some Berekum Constituency executives, during the confirmation of the District Chief Executive, Mr. Kyere Yeboah, confronted them at he, Mr. Kyeremeh?s tailoring shop at Berekum and threatened that if they intended to embark on a planned demonstration against the nomination of the DCE, he would slash them, one after the other, to death.

When contacted, the Berekum Police confirmed that a complaint had be made against Mr. Fordjour and the two regional Executives, Mr. Darko and Mr. Marfo.


As to whether the case was ready for court or not, the Station Officer in charge of the Berekum District Police, Inspector Dovo, indicated that the case was still under investigation.


According to the police, a statement had been taken from the NPP Regional Chairman, but those of Mr. Darko and Mr. Marfo were yet to be taken.


Narrating how the incident occurred, Mr. Kyeremeh said on the day of confirmation of the Berekum DCE, Mr. Fordjour and the other two executives, in the company of a lady by name Sophia, came to his tailoring shop after the DCE was confirmed.


According to Mr. Kyeremeh, at the time they came to the shop, he was there with other members of the concerned group, whose names he gave as Mr. Amankona and Badu Kyeremeh and one other person.


He said when they came, they exchanged greetings and later found out from the chairman what the mission of his entourage was.?Here, the Regional Organizing Secretary then asked them whether it was good for them to plan demonstrating against their own party,? he narrated.

At this point, as hinted, Mr. Amankona demanded from the Regional Organizer to withdraw his statement before they could proceed with any other conversation.


At this point, according to Mr. Kyeremeh, the Chairman, Mr. Fordjour flared up on account of the request of Mr. Amankona and started raining insults on them.


Kyeremeh claimed he pleaded with Mr. Fordjour to cool down, but the NPP regional Chairman would not listen, and rather vented his spleen on him.


?It was during the process that Mr. Fordjour threatened to hire people to slash them one after the other to death,? recounted Kyeremeh who alleged that his cell phone was damaged while they quarrelled with the chairman and others.


The chairman however denied this. ?How could I kill the people? I don?t even know all of them,?he claimed. Those members of the Concerned group, he said, were up to something mischevous, hence their decision to destroy the NPP at Berekum.