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Leadership of the largest opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC) has condemned the assault of Member of Parliament for Asunafo South, Eric Opoku.

Some unknown assailants on Sunday, 1 April 2018 dawn attacked Mr Opoku at his residence at Sankore in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

The incident occurred around 2am Sunday.

Reacting to the incident via a statement, the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said: “The leadership of NDC has taken notice of the brutal and barbaric attacks on our member of Parliament for Asonafo South and former Regional Minister for Brong Ahafo, Hon. Eric Opoku, and many other innocent citizens of Sankore by a group of persons described variously as ‘armed robbers’ by sections of the media, ‘criminals’ by the Ghana police service and ‘known members of NPP vigilante group’ by the victims and all eyewitnesses.

“The NDC has also taken notice of the hurriedly issued reaction of the NPP condemning the attacks and calling on the police to treat the incident as a pure criminality.

“The regrettable attempt by an officer of the Ghana police service to engage in ‘victim-blaming’ by alleging publicly that Hon. Eric Opoku denied himself police protection, however, gives us a deep cause to worry about official complicity in the matter. We hope we are wrong in this belief.”

The statement added: “Whilst condemning this heinous attack, we wish to urge the Ghana police service to approach this case with all the seriousness and the professionalism it can command in order to help redeem its rather sinking image under this NPP administration.

“We also wish to remind the NPP government, for the umpteenth time, about its cardinal responsibility to keep Ghana, all it citizens and their property safe at all times and without any form of discrimination, be it ethnic, political, gender or religious.

“Information reaching us indicate that the situation in Sankore remains volatile and has the potential to escalate, unless a quick and decisive action is taken to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to book. We hope Ghanaians can count on the Ghana police service and the NPP Government to deliver on their respective mandates of eliminating impunity and restoring law and order in our dear country,” the statement noted.

It added: “Meanwhile, the party has constituted a high-powered delegation ready to move to Sankore to visit the victims, and ascertain the facts of the incident as soon as the necessary security clearances are obtained. We wish to take this opportunity to express our deepest sympathy and solidarity to our Hon member of Parliament, all the victims and their families urging them to exercise maximum restraint in this difficult times, with the assurance that they can count on the support of the National Democratic Congress to see to it that they obtain justice in this matter.”