The studio of Diamond FM, a local radio station in Tamale, on Wednesday was turned into a boxing ring, when two top New Patriotic Party (NPP) activists, believed to be sympathisers of Nana Akufo-Addo and the former Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, engaged themselves in a brawl during a live radio discussion on the seizure of party vehicles from regional executives by a youth group.
\nThe two NPP activists, Fredrick Tahidu and an ex-military officer, Sergeant Karim \u2018Soldier,\u2019 did not only exchange physical blows, but ended up tearing their clothes apart, and also washing the party\u2019s dirty linen in public, as they forgot that all the studio microphones were still live, and engaged in the fight.
\nThe exchanges exhibited in the studios followed an ongoing wrangling in the NPP, between some regional executives and angry youth groups on one hand, and supporters of Nana Addo and Alhaji Aliu on the other hand.
\nSome NPP youth have since December last year been attacking their party regional executives, led by the Chairman, Alhaji Harunah Sulemana Tia, affectionately called Harumbis, for allegedly selling to themselves vehicles belonging to the party.
\nBut, the youth, somewhere last week, launched an attack on the executives, and seized some of the vehicles from them. However, the actions of the youth have been misinterpreted by the regional executives, who are accusing former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama of influencing the youth.
\nThe Diamond FM Super Morning Show host, Mohammed Ibn Abdullah, popularly known as \u201cGovernor of the Airwaves\u201d, told The Chronicle that ex-Sergeant Karim was not part of the discussion in the studio, until he phoned in and requested from the host to speak on the matter, preferably, by being invited into the studio to join the other panelists.
\nHis request, according to Ibn Abdullah, was granted by the producer of the show. In the studio, ex-Sergeant Karim, during his submission, attacked the personality of former Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, and allegedly concluded that he was the brain behind the seizure of the vehicles.
\nThis unsubstantiated statement, according to the host, caught the attention of the former Vice President\u2019s loyalists, who violently besieged the premises of Diamond FM to pounce on ex-Sergeant Karim.
\nTo prevent any trouble, the management of the station locked up ex-Sgt Karim in the main studio, while the angry youth kept on shouting and chanting for his release, so that they could deal with him.
\nWithin a few minutes, the whole premises was crowded with NPP activists, who ended up interrupting the running of the station\u2019s programmes for over four hours, during which time the police came to whisk ex-Sgt. Karim away.
\nAnother attempt by the youth to vandalise ex-Sgt. Karim\u2019s Opel vehicle, which was on the list of the wanted party vehicles, was prevented by the Regional Youth Organiser, Alhaji Rashid C.O.P., who towed the vehicle away for safekeeping elsewhere.
\nLast weekend, an NPP youth group, calling itself Northern Youth for Nana Akuffo Addo, led by one Sulemana Sayibu Dokurigu, descended heavily on the party\u2019s Regional Chairman, Alhaji Harunah Sulemana Tia, for working against the development and victory of the party in the coming elections.
\nThe group alleged that Alhaji Harumbis was building the party structures along the Nana Addo, Aliu Mahama and Alan Kyerematen factions, and thus warned that its adverse effects could affect the NPP\u2019s performance in 2012.
\nThe group condemned the Regional Chairman for claiming to be Nana Addo\u2019s man, for which reason he had apparently vowed never to work with party members perceived to be in the opposite camp, including former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama.
\nThey described as totally unacceptable, the Regional Chairman\u2019s apathy towards the former Vice President\u2019s recent one-week campaign tour of the Northern Region.
\nThe group also implored the party\u2019s flagbearer, Nana Akufo Addo, and the national executives to caution Alhaji Harumbis against his attitude towards NPP members, or risk losing more votes in the Northern Region in the 2012 elections.
\nThe Northern Youth for Nana Akuffo Addo group commended Alhaji Rufai Iddi, Regional Vice Chairman, Alhaji Abdallah Hindu, Regional Organiser and Alhaji Wofa, a member of the party\u2019s Regional Council of Elders among other party bigwigs, for joining hands with the former Vice President to unite party supporters in the region, for Victory 2012.
\nAttempts to reach Alhaji Harunah Sulemana Tia, a.k.a Harumbis, Northern Regional NPP Chairman for his reaction, proved futile.
\nSource: Edmond Gyebi, Tamale\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The studio of Diamond FM, a local radio station in Tamale, on Wednesday was turned into a boxing ring, when two top New Patriotic Party (NPP) activists, believed to be sympathisers of Nana Akufo-Addo and the former Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, engaged themselves in a brawl during a live radio discussion on the seizure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n