Central Regional Minister, Ama Benyiwaa Doe and the Central Regional Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, have been fingered as masterminding the disruption of the visit by Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings to the region to “thank” delegates for their unflinching support for her candidature when she contested President Mills for the flagbearership position of the party during the recently held National Delegates’ Congress.
Operations Director of Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), Ernest Owusu Bempah, who gave an eyewitness account of what he described as callousness, accused the two personalities in an interview with Peace FM of seeking to embarrass the former First Lady.
A group of macho men forcibly locked up the Cape Coast Town Hall where a scheduled meeting between members of FONKAR and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, who was on a “Thank You” tour and also to interact with her supporters, was supposed to be held.
They had early on sent a message to the ex-first lady that she was not welcomed into the region and must take a detour to another region.
Reports say the FONKAR members scattered for fear of their lives and the Cape Coast Police had to call for reinforcement from the near-by districts to complement their efforts at preventing what could easily have turned out to be a bloody fight.
Owusu-Bempah expressed shock at the “evil plot” by party members who would seek to not even allow Nana Konadu express her gratitude to the delegates who gave her some “3.1%” of their votes. According to him, they had duly informed executives in the region by formally writing to them regarding the visit and were completely stunned when some 30 able-bodied men disrupted the meeting and locked up the Town Hall.
“If this is the peace President Mills has been touting himself with, then I’m sorry to say that his integrity has been tainted and the “asomdweehene” accolade soiled with mud…When we probed into the matter, we got reliable information that it was Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe and Mr. Allotey Jacobs who sponsored the sad event,” he said.
To him, it was a sad day for democracy and opined that the Mills-led NDC administration was digging its own grave with such diabolical tactics.
“Is it this same government that struggled to get 50.1% that is using intimidation and machomen to scare this woman who has just returned from a congress? I now believe the Wikileaks reports which revealed that there is a calculated attempt by President Mills to snatch and reduce the influence of Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings in the NDC,” he alleged.
He warned that members of FONKAR will not be apathetic to the behavior by some party activists stressing that they are not intimidated by these scare tactics.
“We will match them boot for boot,” he warned in an angry tone.
But in an interview with Peacefmonline.com, Allotey Jacobs categorically denied being the brain behind the incident, stressing that if he was interested in
“I’m not aware of the visit (by Nana Konadu)…I don’t have the slightest idea she was visit the region…I was trying to catch some asleep when a radio station called me about the incident….the Regional Minister, who is the Chairman of REGSEC should be the one to answer such allegations and not me…Look, you know what I’m capable of. I don’t hide behind thugs to do something for me. If and I repeat if, I intend doing something to that effect, i will tell them to the face…I’ll openly tell them this is what I intend to do…but suffice it to be said that such situations does not augur well for the party at all,” he said.