...As NPP and NDC youth engage in 'warfare'

People in the business area of Tamale had the scare of their lives when youths from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) clashed at the municipal central market yesterday.

Fear gripped the inhabitants as news about the clash spread rapidly in town. A combined team of soldiers and police had to be deployed to quell the hostilities that ensued. There were an unspecified number of casualties among the combatants who wielded cudgels, cutlasses and guns.

A motorcycle and a bicycle were burnt. Shops were quickly closed and market women deserted their stalls as security agents fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse the combatants. No arrests were made.

The municipal security committee has met and at the time of reporting, it was contemplating imposing a curfew on the municipality. Such a decision, the municipal chief executive (MCE) said, would have to be approved by the national security through the regional security committee.

"We have to impose a curfew because if such hostilities can happen in the day time, worse atrocities could happen at night. It should be between 7:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. We will also recommend that the state of emergency be enforced fully; party and sporting activities should also cease till we are certain that the situation is peaceful."

Narrating the incident to the press in his office yesterday, the MCE, Alhaji Iddrisu Adam, said it all started on the morning of Sunday, April 20, after the NDC youth had finished a clean-up exercise at the Tamale regional hospital.

"It was reported to me that when the NDC youth, after cleaning, reached the Yendi station at Kukuo, they started to attack an NPP shed, vandalising it and tearing down its flag.

"That night, at Choggo Hill Top, NDC youths attacked a group of NPP youths and wounded seven of them. Six of them were treated and discharged, but the other one had serious wounds so he was detained at the hospital."

The MCE had, about a week earlier, asked a group of butchers who support the NDC to remove NDC flags they had hoisted on the meat shop at the Tamale central market because the building is a public one. The butchers complied but chose to hoist the flags on their tables in and around the shop.

According to the MCE, after the two attacks on the NPP supporters, "a group of people went to the meat shop and removed the NDC flags and vandalised the tables there."

He added: "Then, this morning, the NDC butchers blocked the road in front of the market and started vandalising NPP structures and tearing down flags. So we had to call in the security agents to arrest the situation."

The acting regional youth organiser of the NPP, Alhaji Hindu Abdallah, corroborated the MCE's statement and added that some NPP youths at Aboabu reacted to the rampage by the NDC butchers by mobilising to clash with them at the meat shop.

However, according to the Northern regional secretary of the NDC, Alhaji Abdulai Haruna, when his members finished the clean-up exercise and were passing by the NPP shed at the Yendi station, some NPP supporters there started mocking and casting insinuations at them. "

After that, some of our members decided to attack them, but some elders advised against it. Thereupon, some NPP youths started throwing stones at our members, saying they are in power and could do whatever they liked."

Alhaji Abdulai added that at Choggo Hill Top, some NPP youths told the story of how some NDC youths nearly destroyed the NPP shed at Kukuo.

That night some NPP butchers at Choggo mobilised and went to the meat shop at the central market and destroyed the tables of the NDC butchers. "This infuriated the owners of the table who moved to Choggo that same night and openly confronted the butchers.

"This morning (yesterday) the NDC chairman reported the incidence to the police and the BNI. The NDC butchers wanted the authorities to go and see how their tables had been destroyed. Instead of that the police went and used their vehicles to shove those tables aside."

According to Alhaji Abdulai, some NPP youths at Aboabu who heard that the NDC butchers did not want their broken tables to be cleared from the street moved to the central market and attacked the butchers with offensive weapons.

Meanwhile the executives of the NPP and the NDC have asked their followers to desist from further hostilities and refer any grievances to the police.