AS THEIR HOOLIGANS VISIT MAYHEM ON OFFICE OF FEEDER ROADS IN TAMALE

Urban Roads Is Next In line

Lens Analytical Desk

Dr. Obed Asamoah must have had a dream about hooliganism within the body politic in Ghana but upon awakening, completely mixed up the name of the party that was the true home of hooligans. The following report will show incontrovertibly that the citadel of hooligans is the New Patriotic Party rather than the National Democratic Congress.

In a show of barbarity that can only be described as the mother of all political hooliganism, supporters of NPP in Tamale goaded on by disclosures from the Esseku tape went on rampage and vandalised the office of Feeder Roads in Tamale, brutalizing anyone in sight.

What was the crime of the officers of Feeder Roads Division? They are, according to the ! NPP hooligans, refusing to award road contracts to NPP contractors and rather giving them to those supporting the NDC.

The Lens has learned that Mashud C.O.P who is the son of the NPP Northern Regional Chairman led the group. The group of NPP hooligans also included others whose names have been given as Alhaji Awal, Alhaji Alhassan and Nassam Ibrahim Cons. While the ringleaders were conveyed in a green Toyota pickup driven by one Adam Landy, others rode on motorbikes.

Upon arriving at the office of the Feeder Roads, they pounced upon two gentlemen who were present. Addo Turkson, the Saboba District Engineer was badly brutalized and as a result lost two of his front teeth. The other victim was the Regional Lands surveyor who is popularly known as Gaboo. This relatively aged gentleman was mercilessly beaten until he fell unconscious.

The major target of the brutal gang of NPP hooligans ! was the Regional Engineer, David Brobbey. His luck was that he was out of town. Even in his absence, the NPP hooligans (who most likely featured in Dr. Obed Asamoah?s post congress dream) went ahead to vandalize both his office and his residence.

The Quantity Surveyor who was another key target could not be found, so the thugs proceeded to his residence and only God knows what would have happened to his poor wife who was home alone, had it not been that she quickly identified the son of the NPP regional chairman and surmised from their mood that danger was in the offing and so she run away from the house before they broke in.

There is no need asking whether they vandalized his residence too since that was the express instructions given to the group at an earlier meeting held at the operational headquarters of the group, Lidra Ltd, which incidentally is owned by Vice President Aliu Mahama. This has led to a lot of finger! s being pointed in the direction of the Vice president, who incidentally used to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of contracts during the tenure of the NDC.

What an irony that his Tamale office now being run by his nephew named Abdul Rahman, will today be the operational centre where plots are hatched to cause mayhem on public servants suspected to be favoring contractors belonging to the opposition.

The vandalized office has been close since.

An ominous warning has been sent by the NPP hooligans to their next institutional target- the urban roads department. And knowing the magnitude of impunity with which supporters of NPP all over the country can get away with even murder, one would not be surprised to hear any day from now that Mission 2, has been accomplished.

Who knows, maybe these hooligans will have the courtesy of sending an eleventh hour notification to the NDC office in Tamale for onward tra! nsmission to Dr. Asamoah. Perhaps that can help update his knowledge of political hooliganism in Ghana.

KETA NDC DISMISSES OBED?S CLAIMS

The Keta constituency of the NDC held its monthly executive meeting last Friday 6th January to get a full briefing by the constituency delegates who were at the Koforidua Congress of the party and to also review some pre and post congress developments within the NDC.

In a resolution passed by the Constituency executives and signed by Samuel Lumor, the organizer, the meeting expressed total satisfaction with the conduct of the Congress and described it as being totally free, fair and devoid of any form of intimidation. The conduct of the elections, the Constituency concluded, were done in accordance with all known established democratic practices and procedures and therefore a testimony to the genuine democratic culture and credentials of the NDC.

The meeting also took note of pre and post congress developments especially the orchestrations by certain individuals who, despite their claims to belief in democratic processes and procedures have by their practice proved to be most undemocratic and contemptuous of the democratic wishes and aspirations of the people, even the decisions of Congress.

The Constituency noted that the tenure of Dr. Asamoah was fraught with consistent and constant intrigue by him to create a faction that would enable him pursue his personal and parochial political ambitions. ?During his tenure, the word factions got introduced into the political vocabulary of the NDC. He worked very hard to undermine the influence and popularity of the Icon of the party, former President Rawlings through sustained attacks on all that the founder stands for including accusations of dictatorship.?

The meeting also drew attention to Obed Asamoah?s double standards. Being elected chairman of the party four years, the meeting said, ?meant to him a deepening of democracy within the party. When the same congress a year later rejected his preferred presidential candidate and flagbearer aspirant Dr. Kwesi Botchwey and instead elected Prof Mills, the Congress? decision was undemocratic and a result of manipulation?. Dr. Asamoah, according to the Constituency executives, did everything to subvert and undermine the decision of congress by not fully cooperating with the elected flagbearer, resulting in the defeat of the party in the 2004 elections.

The meeting further took note of the fact that Dr. Asamoah caused to be circulated days before Congress a document in which he launched vitriolic attacks on President Rawlings and Prof Mills. Those acts, according to the executives, were not the works of a professed democrat but somebody who will stop at nothing! to achieve his ambition.

The meeting further noted attempts by Dr. Asamoah?s acolytes and agents to influence delegates with money outside and within the conference hall and condemned the monetization of politics within the NDC by Dr. Asamoah.