Blood thirsty suspected thugs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Kukuom, the district capital of Asunafo South in the Brong-Ahafo Region, yesterday went on rampage, beating up New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters at the District Electoral office.
The action was reportedly premised on who was qualified to transfer his or her vote to the constituency in the ongoing voter transfer exercise being carried out by the electoral body.
The alleged NDC supporters were said to have slashed the head of a former NPP constituency chairman’s driver, Louis Yeboah and beat up three other people mercilessly at the EC office before vandalising items in the office.
They also purportedly shot at a TV set in the office and made away with a television decoder.
The thugs were led by one Akwasi Adu, who is said to be an aide to the regional minister and MP for the area, Eric Opoku.
According to sources, Akwasi Adu was the same NDC activist who reportedly shot and killed an NPP member, Kwabena Nyame, a local evangelist at Sankore on July 19, 2009.
Akwasi Adu, after the alleged murder, left the town and was later smoked out of the regional minister bedroom at his Sakumono house with no prosecution because of alleged political support from the minister.
According to our source, after the mayhem at the EC and the NPP offices, the group wielded machetes on the streets of Kukuom and dared people to come and face them before going to the District Chief Executive’s residency in an NDC campaign vehicle embossed with President Mahama’s portrait.
The former constituency chairman of the NPP, Osei Bonsu, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, said yesterday at about 10:30 am, a former resident of Kumasi (now residing at a village called Nobeko doing vegetable farming), came to the EC office and said that he wanted to transfer his vote from Kumasi to Kukuom but some NDC supporters prevented him from doing that because he’s not a resident and more so, he is an NPP supporter.
He said while they were there some NDC youth from Sankore, led by one Akwasi Adu, came and disrupted the transfer process.
He said they went away and later came with one Nii Loko, NDC constituency communication director, to the venue and beat him and others up without provocation.
In the end, his driver, Louis, popularly called Busia, was slashed on the head and bled profusely.
He later reported the case to the district police and was given police medical form to go to the hospital for treatment.
According to him, the NDC goons later went to the district police command and dared the personnel to arrest them, saying ‘the matter will not reach anywhere.’
All attempts to speak to the district police boss proved futile.
The commander’s phone was switched off whilst the divisional commander failed to pick his phone calls.
The regional crime officer, Superintendent Maama Ahim, said the case had not come before him and so could not speak to it.
Answering questions on a local FM station, Moonlight FM, yesterday in the morning, the Asunafo South Constituency communication officer of the NDC, Nii Lokko, also accused the NPP at Kukuom of busing people from Nhyeaso in the Ashanti Region to come and register for the vote transfer.
He accused the NPP parliamentary candidate of the area, George Boakye, of masterminding the move because he wants to win the Asunafo South Constituency seat at all cost.
He also accused him of organizing people to shoot and hurt, Eric Opoku, the current regional minister when he (Boakye) was the DCE in 2008.
It would be recalled that less than a fortnight ago during his rounds in the Brong-Ahafo Region to assess the situation on the ground, the acting NPP national chairman, Freddie Blay, appealed to all peace-loving stakeholders, particularly the police and other security agents in the region, to call NDC supporters at Asunafo South to order because they had allegedly attacked his party men.
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