Some supporters of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) are up for a showdown with the Offinso Traditional Council after the former performed rituals in the River Offin.

The Council has summoned the protesters and leadership of the NPP in the Ashanti Region over the development. The aggrieved NPP supporters on Thursday poured on the streets of the Offinso South Constituency after reports emerged that two aspirants had been disqualified from contesting the party’s parliamentary race.

According to the supporters, they want the leadership of the party to allow the aspirants to contest the sitting MP, Abdallah Bandah, in order to ensure peace in the constituency.

Footages widely shared on social media platforms showed some of the aggrieved NPP supporters slaughtering a ram while others poured liquors in the River Offin as they invoked curses on top NPP executives.

“All that we want is peace. All that they want is for the elections to be held for peace and justice to prevail. So we are pleading with the national level to allow peace to prevail in Offinso. For the ritual, it is because we believe in our gods to give us justice in the community. It is not because we want to fight.

“There is going to be an election in Offinso South. There won’t be anything like someone is going to impose someone we don’t want on us. If they do, we will boycott the election”, a supporter said.

But reacting to the development, the Offinso Traditional Council said the action by the NPP was ‘unwarranted’ and ‘needless’. They also rubbished claims the Paramount Chief of Offinso, Nana Wiafe Akenten sanctioned the act.

A member of the Council, Nana Kwaku Wiafe said: “When the Paramount Chief heard the news he sent a delegation to reach out to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP but he ignored our invitation. And let me state on record that the Paramount Chief, Nana Wiafe Akenten knows nothing about this. Nobody sought permission from him and he wouldn’t even sanction this.”

Another member added: “We are a committee which look into such matters; and so we have been tasked by the Paramount Chief to summon them[the protesters]. Invoking curses and performing such rituals will not be tolerated. They are natives of Offinso and they know the consequences of their actions. We will not let them go unpunished.”

The NPP is scheduled to conduct its parliamentary primaries on June 20, 2020.

The election was supposed to have come off on April 25, 2020, but was postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country and the related restrictive measures announced by the President.

At a Steering Committee meeting held on Monday [June 1, 2020], the party agreed to hold the election in electoral areas rather than at the constituency level in order to ensure social distancing.

NPP was to use the primaries to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where it has sitting Members of Parliament, ahead of the 2020 general elections.

Anger in Asante/Juaben

In a related development, some NPP delegates in the Juaben Constituency of the Ashanti region have protested the decision of the party executives to disqualify an aspirant, Francis Owusu, from the primaries.

The delegates have threatened not to campaign for the party in the upcoming 2020 general elections if the decision is not reversed.

Some constituency executives feel the disqualification is a ploy to allow the incumbent (MP), Ama Pomaa Boateng, run unopposed.

“For now, we don’t the reason for the dismissal. But all the delegates in the constituency are not in support of the decision to disqualify the aspirant. This is a situation we don’t want to happen, but we are urging the arty executives to meet our demands so the party will have peace in this constituency. From the President to the Region, we are urging all our executives to do what will make us happy. We will not rest until the decision is reconsidered,” one executive said.

“The disqualified aspirant is who we want. We believe in him because although he is not a sitting MP, he has done enough for us. He has constructed roads and constructed a police post for us to address the robbery cases here. So we are appealing to the President and the party executives to reinstate the aspirant so we can retain the seat because the incumbent MP has failed us,” another said.

Outrage in Asokwa Constituency

The NPP will have to deal with another related issue in the Asokwa Constituency.

Party supporters have threatened to boycott this year’s general election campaign in the Constituency in protest against a decision to allow sitting MP, Patricia Appiagyei to contest unopposed.

Although the party is yet to release the list of contestants ahead of the primaries, the aggrieved supporters said they had information that an aspirant has been disqualified from the race.

The party supporters after invoking curses on some executives want the party to reverse the decision.

“We want to caution the NEC against any attempt to do anything sinister. This is a democratic party. We must make the delegates decide on which candidate they prefer because they have vowed to vote against any candidate that is imposed on them”, a Constituency Organizer warned.