PHOTO: Asemfoforo Thrown Out. At NDC Forum

Drama unfolded at a National Democratic Congress (NDC) youth forum organized in Accra to energize the youth for the 2012 elections. The forum, which took place at the National Theater, brought together hundreds of party faithful from various places in the capital. As the programme was going on, Dr. Asemfoforo, a well-known NDC serial caller, who appeared from nowhere, mounted the platform where the party executives where sitting. He then quickly walked towards the table behind which the party executives were sitting, knelt down and started begging them to the bewilderment of the audience. As he was begging the executives of the party, some macho-men came from behind, held him by his trousers and started pushing him off the platform. At a point, the macho-men had to lift him up like a bag of cement before they were able to get him off the platform. Dr. Asemfoforo, who was able to struggle with them and set himself free, again knelt down before Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, who was sitting on the frontline seat, close to the platform, and started talking to him and begging whilst the macho-men waited for him. Mr. Vanderpuije then pleaded with the macho-men to leave the notorious serial caller alone so that he could put his case across but they were adamant and pushed him out of the auditorium. Explaining why he mounted the platform, Dr. Asemfoforo later told Daily Guide that he went onto the platform to beg the party leaders to stop the demolition exercise which was going on at Weija and some parts of Ablekuma. He said all efforts to get the authorities to put a stop to the exercise proved futile that was why he decided to go onto the platform to plead for mercy for the suffering masses. He claimed that Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, was one of the dignitaries sitting behind the high table who ordered the macho-men to throw him out. According to Dr. Asemfoforo, Mr. Afriyie-Ankrah had told him that the NPP had sent him (Asemfoforo) to go and create a scene in order to destroy the programme. However, Asemfoforo said, he had gone on the platform to beg them to stop the pulling down of buildings at Weija and its environs. He stated, �NPP has never told me anything, neither have I met with any officials of the NPP to discuss things about the NDC. I decided to go on the platform to beg them because I felt what they were doing was not right. They are making too many people homeless�. Asemfofro pointed out that he had never experienced such maltreatment like what he went through at the forum. �I have not been treated with contempt like this before in my life not even under President Kufuor�s administration. I once insulted President Kufuor at a public forum but I was not maltreated like the way NDC men did to me. I will make sure that NDC is voted out of power come 2012. They are heartless people.�