NDC Dares Police Boss

The Ashanti regional National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called the bluff of Superintendent Kwesi Ofori, Tafo/Pankrono District Police Commander, and his men, emphasizing that it was prepared to be shot at if that will please the police chief. Addressing a press conference in Kumasi yesterday, in reaction to the police order to shoot hoodlums attacking registration centres in Tafo area, Joseph Yammin, Ashanti regional NDC secretary, said, �If Superintendent Kwesi Ofori has been hired to do the bidding of the NPP in his area, then he should give an order for all in the NDC to be killed.� The hurriedly-organized press conference by the NDC was in reaction to Kwesi Ofori�s order to his men to shoot at any person or group of people that would try to use offensive weapons to injure EC officials and other people or to disrupt the registration exercise in Kumasi. According to the NDC, since it had realized that Supt Ofori was biased towards the NPP, �we will not sit for Supt Kwesi Ofori to intimidate and cow us�. The police chief had declared one �Dzigbodi,� a known NDC hooligan at Moshie Zongo in Kumasi, wanted, putting a ransom of GH�2,000 (�20million) on his head for leading attacks on registration centres. Yammin, who sounded angry, warned that �if he wants to declare war on us by ordering police to shoot and kill the members of the NDC monitoring team, then we are ready for him�. He noted that if the police and the EC could not guarantee the safety of NDC agents, then the ruling political party would be compelled to engage the services of private security men to protect all agents of the NDC in the Ashanti Region. He stated further that the NDC would desist from that action when the EC and the Police Service displayed signs that they were ready to take the necessary steps to protect all NDC agents at the various registration centers in the region. Yammin said the police officer�s threat ordering his men to shoot people that visited registration centers in the city would not deter the ruling party from sending its men to monitor how the national process was moving on. He alleged that the NPP had managed to register some minors at various registration centers in the Kumasi Metropolis without the EC or Superintendent Kwesi Ofori taking any action about it. Yammin stated that the NDC agents would continue to challenge any minor that would visit any registration centre to get registered so as to be able to vote in the coming polls, reiterating that if the police would respond to this action of the NDC with shooting, then so be it.