Upper West NPP Chairman Vows - To Take 4 Seats Or Resign

The Upper West regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Abubakar, has vowed to resign if he is unable to snatch four parliamentary seats from the National Democratic Congress in the 2016 elections. According to the NPP Chairman the political temperature in the region is an indication that the NDC would not have a jolly ride to win all 11 seats in the region like it did in the 2012 elections. Although it was under Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Abubakar�s leadership that the NDC bagged all the parliamentary seats, he is said to have told party faithful that the current tension between Waalas and Dagaabas is good riddance for the NPP. Reports are that the outcome of the recently held NDC regional elections in the Upper West have sparked a deep-rooted rivalry between the two dominant ethnic groups, with the Waalas accusing some influential persons in the Mahama government of skewing the election in favor of the Dagaabas. A recent press statement by a Waala youth group alleged that the Secretary to cabinet, Roger Ansomwini, former Upper West Regional minister, Abu Kabiabata Kasangbata (aka KK), Kale Caesar and Dr Edward Dery of the PNC schemed to end the over 20 years reign of a Waala Chairman, Alhaji Malik Issahak. This they said was done to sideline the Waalas in the political affairs of the region and entrench Dagaaba supremacy. �Before the elections, the Upper West political grapevine was rife with rumor that a grand tribalistic scheme code named the �Dagaaba Agenda� had been nurtured in the comfy offices of Roger Ansonwini in the flag staff house with the blessing of His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, to, enable Dagaabas to wrest control of the Upper West NDC from the Waalas. As a discerning group, we chose to treat that rumor with the contempt that we thought it deserved,� the statement alleged. However, information gathered by The aL-hAJJ indicates that the NPP regional chairman, also known as Alhaji Short has been bragging to friends and party loyalists that the time has come for the biggest opposition party to make impressive political gains in the region. Parliamentary seats that Alhaji Short is said to have vowed to snatch from the NDC are Nandom, Wa Central, Wa West and Wa East constituencies. These seats are currently being occupied by Minister of Defense, Benjamin Kumbour; Minister of State at the presidency, Rashid Pelpuo; former Minister of Health, Joseph Yieleh Chireh and Ameen Salifu respectively. The NPP Chairman�s permutation, according to sources close to him is that since the Wa East, West and Central seats are Waala seats, it would be politically wise to make incursions into and capture them especially now that the Waalas are at �war� with the NDC.