Shot fired as Tamale mayor escapes stone attacks

The bodyguard of the Tamale mayor Iddrisu Musah Superior had to fire a warning shot to prevent a mob from attacking his boss at a suburb called Viting.

Mr. Superior was in the community upon an invitation by authorities of the Viting Senior High School, following a renewed land encroachment dispute between the school and some residents.

Dozens of structures have sprung up in front of the school as authorities began construction works for a wall project. People erected container shops to sell. A Pocket of petty hawkers had set up their wares selling bed sheets and second-hand clothes, and mobile phone dealers had also spread their tables and chairs under canopies.

Resistance from the school authorities towards the erections have sparked friction between these hawkers who are strongly backed by majority of the community folks.

Things came to a head, however, last Friday when the sellers attempted to prevent workers from carrying out plastering works on the newly built wall. School authorities then called the Mayor to intervene.

As the Mayor arrived, the traders charged towards him amidst chants and insult and others started to attack with stones. Sensing danger, he was quickly driven away, leaving behind his police bodyguard and a Personal Assistant.

The Personal Assistant, Abu Rafique, told Starr News in response to the incident, “that’s Tamale for you” and explained how the whole episode played out.

“The school wanted to plaster the wall but the people were preventing them so a report was sent to the Mayor. The Mayor earlier in the morning sent the city guards to demolish the structures”.

Rafique continued that, the Mayor was carrying out an official visit at the Assembly’s sub metro office in Banvum when he was informed that the people had regrouped and were mounting the illegal structures again.

“Immediately the Mayor arrived they were just rushing towards him. He didn’t even come out”, the spokesman said. “The body guard had to fire warning shots because they attacked him. One of them hit the bodyguard. We got a yellow and yellow and the people still followed us and knocked the policeman again, and there was just scuffle between them”.

The administration of Superior has been thoroughly turbulent since he assumed office in March, 2017.

His problems started when he began to implement his administration’s initiative called ‘The Tamale Project’, which seeks to tackle crime, sanitation, congestion and general streets lawlessness in the city.

Under the project, the Mayor launched a military crackdown on prostitution, juvenile delinquencies, marijuana users and suspected criminals in the Tamale forest reserve.

He waged a sustained war on market women and petty hawkers selling on the streets, pedestrian walkways and unapproved locations in the Central Business District (CBD). He was also clamping down on commercial riders and demolishing properties illegally built on waterways.

Though, there were some resistance in the initial take off of the initiative, its implementation was later smoothly successful until the market women, tricycle drivers, wee smokers and even the prostitutes started to involve traditional rulers and leadership of the ruling party in the region.

Friday’s attack was the fifth of the ongoing assault targeting the Mayor by the frustrated and angry residents.