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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

NPP opens fire on NDC over attacks; pleads with police to be even handed

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The New Patriotic Party has rebuffed calls for the president to condemn acts of violence being perpetrated by followers of the party.

Rather the party opened fire on the opposition National Democratic Congress who are supposedly victims of the attacks.

At a press conference in Accra, Wednesday, the Deputy General Secretary of the party Nana Obiri Boahene said the NDC has no moral rights to be complaining about the attacks when they presided over eight years of similar attacks, vandalism and even murder of opposition supporters.

He also called on the police to be even handed in the handling of the matter.

The response may come as a surprise to moderates within the party and members of the civil society and faith based organisations who have called on the president to call his supporters to order.

There have been series of attacks perpetrated by members of the NPP shortly after the party was declared winner of the 2016 elections.

The attacks have seen supporters seize anything they come across, from public toilets to public offices across the country.

The National Health Insurance Scheme, the National Disaster Management Organisation, the Youth Enterprise Agency have all suffered violent takeovers.

The passport office in Accra, toll booths in Tema, Assin Fosu, Cape Coast and many other areas in the country have all been attacked and operators, especially of the toll booths chased out.

The attackers claim they were kicked out of their jobs eight years ago when the NPP lost power to the NDC and they are back to take what is rightfully theirs.

Women have lost their teeth defending their rights to manage the public toilets; managers and cooks with the school feeding program have all lost their jobs because of the violent takeovers.

The police have managed some arrests and have begun some prosecutions.

Members of the opposition National Democratic Congress, not impressed with what is happening have threatened to retaliate if the violent attacks on their supporters do not end.

At a press conference, party chairman Kofi Portuphy said the Invisible Forces, the security group aligned to the NPP must be called to order else the NDC will be forced to defend themselves.

The attacks and threats to retaliate have raised the tension in the country with many civil society groups and political analysts calling on the president to condemn the attacks.

Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana Prof Ransford Gyampoh said the acts of lawlessness is a by-product of the winner takes policy entrenched in the country’s politics.

He said the president must condemn the violence in no uncertain terms.

But Nana Obiri Boahene said as far as he is concerned the president’s comment on the matter will be unnecessary.

Whilst condemning the violent attacks by the NPP supporters he reminded the NDC of the series of attacks perpetrated by their supporters in 2009.

“It is very important to remind them of those incidents. In our case we have come out to condemn the attacks but they were silent,” he argued.

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