A parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party in the 2012 election and an aspirant National Youth Organizer of the party, Mr. Pius Enam Hadzide, has appealed to the leadership of the party to take a serious view of the situation in Tamale involving the sentencing of five young men of the party by the Tamale High Court to various prison terms including death.

According to Mr. Hadzide, who spoke to Today Newspaper from his base in the Volta Region, if nothing drastic and swift is done now, the situation would have a demoralizing effect on the youth of the party especially from the north.

He has, therefore, called on the leadership to attach the same amount of seriousness and importance that was attached to the election petition hearing. “I congratulate Lawyer Obiri Boahen for his continued commitment to the cause and I am also aware that the General Secretary was in the north to amongst other things call for calm, but I am appealing that as a matter of urgency, the party dispatches the same high profile legal representation as we saw during the petition hearing, together with the three former attorney generals to Tamale, to immediately activate the appeal process and to secure the freedom of those boys”.

The Tamale High Court presided over by Justice Lawrence Mensah on 20 August 2013, Sentenced five persons, Yahuza Yakubu, Abibu Dagbana, Majeed Alhasan, Alhasan Sayibu and Imoro Gundana for conspiracy to murder, and sentenced them to various prison terms, including a death sentence, following a political clash between NPP and NDC youth in front of the Tamale Central Market butchers’ house. But Mr. Hadzide insists that the jury’s verdict was a far cry from justice.

He claimed that the whole process of arrest and prosecution was politically motivated and that the final verdict was procured on the direct orders of the flagstaff house as part of a game plan for President Mahama to perpetuate himself in power no matter what the Supreme Court decision in the election petition was. “If there was a clash between two factions, several houses were burnt, motorcycles and other properties were destroyed in the process, one person lost his life, how come only Abudus and NPP members were arrested? Are we being told that the people burnt their own houses and destroyed several of their own properties? How come a judgment was hurriedly given a few days to the judgment of the Supreme Court? If the Abudu and NPP youth were not restrained, what would have happened?” Pius queried.

The Youth Organizer aspirant also called on the National Peace Council and all peace loving Ghanaians to intervene and to exert pressure on President John Mahama to take the necessary executive steps to free these young men in the interest of peace. In the mean time, he has congratulated the NPP youth for exercising restraint in the face of clear injustice. He has asked them not to be intimidated and demoralized, but to continue to hold themselves up in readiness.