…Controversy over motorbike B

onwire Takrabe, a village in the Nkonya constituency in the Volta region was last Wednesday April 2, turned into a boxing arena by a group of NPP supporters, who were fighting over a motorbike donated to the constituency by the failed Presidential candidate of the party, Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen.

At the centre of the drama was the District Chief Executive for Jasikan, Mr. Solomon Donkoh, who allegedly ordered two party activists- Messrs. William Sackey and Benjamin Akrasi to seize the motorbike in question from the constituency organizer, Samuel Doe.

The DCE has however, denied that he sent the accused persons to forcibly seize the motorbike as being alleged. According to him at the time of the incident he was at Cape Coast and could not have been the brain behind the confrontation. He told Chronicle in a telephone interview yesterday that the Jasikan police called him on phone about the motorbike but he denied any knowledge about it. Information obtained by The Chronicle indicates that on the day in question, a former constituency chairman of the party sent the incumbent organizer to Bonwire Aboabo, to invite some of chiefs for a meeting.

When the emissary (Samuel Doe) got to the Aboabo village, he was attacked by William Sackey and Benjamin Akrasi, who claimed they had been sent by the DCE to seize the Motorbike from him because he and his group did not vote for Alan. Samuel Doe, who spoke to The Chronicle yesterday on phone said, when he parked the bike at Aboabo to go and deliver his message, the two accused persons who were apparently trailing him, attacked him and forcibly took the key of the bike away from him.

Doe told this reporter that he quickly ran to the chief to inform him about what had taken place. The chief then sent for the two party activists for questioning. At the chief’s palace, the two repeated their earlier claim that they were sent by the DCE to seize the motorbike. This claim disarmed the chief from taking further action on the matter. The Chronicle gathered from independent sources that after the motorbike was seized, the two went to the Jasikan district assembly, where they were given a vehicle by the district coordinating director to go and bring the motorbike down from the village.

From the district assembly, they drove to the Jasikan police station where they informed the police that the DCE had asked them to come for police escort, to accompany them to the village to bring the bike, which they obliged. Unknown to them and the police, the constituency organizer had also gone to Kwamekrom to organize his people to come and take possession of the bike. The two groups subsequently clashed at Bonwire Takrabe after the constituency organizer and his group had given the district assembly car, which had then gone for the motorbike, a hot chase. In the ensuing confusion, the driver of the district assembly’s car was said to have suffered severe beating while the police officer accompanying him could not do anything about it.

A police source at Jasikan, confirmed to the paper that William Sackey and Benjamin Akrasi indeed came to the station, claiming that the DCE had asked them to come for an escort to bring the motorbike from the village. The police source also confirmed that the district assembly’s vehicle was attacked and the bike taken away from them without any resistance from the police officer that accompanied the vehicle. The NPP constituency chairman for Buem, Peter Akotey, told the paper that he was at the Jasikan police station when William Sackey came to inform the officers that the DCE had ordered him to come for an escort to bring the bike they had seized from the constituency organizer. He said it was based on the DCE’s involvement that the policeman joined the vehicle to bring down the motorbike. His counterpart from Biakoye, Anthony Forson, also confirmed this story when reached for his comments.

He expressed surprise at the development since all feuding factions in the NPP came together after the Legon congress. He expressed utter dismay at the fact that the DCE could still be harbouring such negative feelings because a particular group of people did not vote for his favourite candidate. Solomon Donkoh, the DCE, during the interview said he recently donated a number of motorbikes to the Buem constituency office of the NPP and wondered how he would at the same time go back to seize the motorbikes. He said the allegation is a calculated attempt to soil his hard won reputation.

Meanwhile, the constituency organiser, Samuel Doe, has reported the conduct of his attackers, William Sackey and Benjamin Akrasi to the Kwamekrom police. The accused persons were at the police station yesterday to write their statements. Chronicle learnt that the two accused persons, in their statement to the police did not name the DCE as the one who ordered them to go and seize the motorbike. This reporter also established that Samuel Doe, the constituency organizer, went to the village in question to incite the chiefs to reject the citing of the capital of the newly established Biakoye district at Ahenkro. He instead called on the chiefs to support the fight to push the capital to Worawora. A source told Chronicle that it was based on this incitement that Akrasi and William decided to seize the bike from him.