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An aspirant for the First Vice Chairman position of the New Patriotic Party, Mr Sammy Crabbe, has expressed optimism in winning the post at the end of voting at the party's National Delegates Conference in Tamale on Saturday. "I've risen through the ranks and garnered a lot of experience. I'm hundred percent sure that I'll win�, Mr Crabbe told Graphic Online, urging the website to sample the views of people on his assertion. "It [the findings] will support what I'm saying," he added. He said he and his team were working hard on the ground and had adopted a unique strategy to try to convince delegates that he is the best candidate for the position. Mr Crabbe said: "I am very confident that the message that we took around is solid. The relationships that we have built over the years are coming into play. "I'm also confident that the track record that we have will give people the assurance that all the things that we have promised will be delivered. We have promised before and we have delivered in the past and we have a lot of party management experience as well.� He granted Graphic Online the interview at the Emergency Ward of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, where he had gone to visit nine NPP activists who were shot Thursday night in the Tamale West Hospital area. Mr Crabbe who appeared shocked and upset at the shooting said the victims were "people I've known for years". "These are people who are on the ground and are actually working for me," he said, noting that he was with some of the victims two hours before the shootings. He said he was, however, buoyed by the assurance given by the hospital to the effect that the victims were in stable conditions, adding that it was too early to determine whether the gunmen were motivated politically to carry out the shootings. According to him, they may just be criminals who got themselves embedded in the political process. "People have found a way of using the political process to perpetuate violence," he added. Mr Crabbe expressed hope that the perpetrators of the shooting would be arrested by the police and brought to book. According to the Northern Regional Police Command, the activists were having fun when unidentified gunmen in an unregistered taxi cab opened fire on them, injuring nine people - including a woman - in the process. The victims were then rushed to the Tamale Teaching Hospital at around 11:30pm. The Acting Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr Misbao Mohammed, said one of the victims had undergone surgery and was responding positively to treatment, while another - the female - was being operated upon as at the time of reporting. Mr Mohammed said three of the nine had been critically injured, but were now stable. The incident has triggered fear among a section of the public in Tamale as well as visitors who are in town for the NPP Conference. ASP Ebenezer Tetteh, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Command has, however, assured the public that the police will patrol every nook and cranny of the city and "saturate" the entire metropolis with police officials to ensure that the NPP congress is successful.