General News of Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Source: myjoyonline.com
Nii Lante Vanderpuye
Deputy Local Government minister is accusing the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of being behind the violent demonstration by displaced residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, Monday.
According to Nii Lante Vanderpuye the NPP Deputy Youth Organiser in the Odododiodio constituency was part of the rampaging youth who went destroying properties at the State House and pelted police and other innocent citizens with stones.
The deputy minister who is also the MP for Odododiodio said he saw about 20 of the protestors wearing NPP T-shirts.
Joy News reporter Kwakye Afreh Nuamah also reported seeing the protestors wearing both the NPP and NDC T-shirts.
In the end though, 20 of the protestors were Monday arrested by the Accra police for violent conduct. They were protesting the demolition of their homes by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.
The demonstration turned violent at some point with the protestors clashing with the police and pelting them with stones. A number of police vehicles had their windscreens shattered.
Tear gas was thrown at the protestors to disperse them.
Hours after demonstration and subsequent arrests of some of the protestors the Deputy Minister said the demonstration was organised by the opposition party to create disaffection for government.
“It was quite unfortunate,” he said, but the Director of Communications of the NPP Nana Akomea has dismissed the claims.
He said allegations by the Deputy Minister does not show “sympathy or respect” to the affected residents whose houses have been demolished.
He said whether the AMA was justified or not in demolishing the houses at Sodom and Gomorrah, people have been put in distressed condition and needed no prompting from politicians to register their displeasure.
To accuse the NPP of being behind is demonstration “does not do justice to our sense of responsibility,” Akomea pointed out.
He wondered why the government will continuously blame the NPP for all the ills in the country including depreciating cedi, Woyome judgment debt etc.